Single Sweet Soul
by Angelee
Summary: Cali, a fourteen year old girl, arrives at Hogwarts to find friends and enemies, friends who become enemies and vice versa, Draco Malfoy's attention, and most of all, the question of just why certain Houses detest each other so. AU
1. Start of Troubles

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter One: Start of Troubles

By Angelee

Hello! I got this idea at about 3 a.m. after watching movie channels on TV. This is, in my opinion, the best story I've ever come up with. It has more than one storyline, and it's more deep.. I guess you could say that.

Hope you enjoy!

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"Platform nine and three-fourths... nine and three-fourths? That's weird. What other things should I know about London?!" A fourteen-year-old girl stepped into the train station in London, pushing a cart full of luggage. She made her way through the people there, getting strange looks from many.

"What are you staring at?!" she half-shouted. They looked quickly away, mumbling amongst themselves.

She had long, platinum blonde hair, and piercing green eyes. She was wearing a green tank top to match her eyes, black jeans, and her hair in loose pigtails, a green ribbon tying one, and a silver one tying the other. She approached platforms nine and ten, looking up and around. She sighed. "So this is what it comes to. Alllll that reading and studying.. and I can't find the platform! Who the heck has ever heard of a platform NINE AND THREE- FOURTHS anyways??"

"We have," said a voice behind her. She whirled around, deciding that help would be, well.. helpful.

"I'm Pansy Parkinson," the speaker introduced herself. Then she pointed to her friend, who was more than a bit larger than herself. "This is Millicent Bulstrode. I assume you are going to Hogwarts?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but I don't happen to see a platform nine and-"

Pansy cut her off. "Watch me, I'll show you how," she said snottily. "This is our fifth year, is it yours, too?"

She nodded again. "What a snob," she muttered to herself. "Well, I suppose there's nothing bad about having SOME friendliness.. if you consider that friendly.." she rolled her eyes then turned her attention back to Pansy.

Pansy backed up a bit then started with a run. It seemed as if she were purposely trying to ram into the column between platforms nine and ten!

Her eyes widened. Then, if possible, they widened some more as Pansy disappeared into the wall. "Huh.. wha... how..?" she stuttered.

Millicent smirked. "Just follow me.."

The girl nodded yet again, and watched as Millicent, too, vanished into the wall. Shrugging, she braced herself and broke into a jog.

There was a strange, unearthly, yet accomplished feeling and when she opened her eyes, she realized she was no longer in the London Train Station. She looked up and saw a sign proclaiming: Hogwarts Express; Platform 9¾. Then she saw Pansy and Millicent hurrying away, snickering at the sight of her confusion.

She considered flicking them off, but decided against it. If anyone were to see, they would not have a very nice impression of her. Sighing, she made her way to the train and entered. All the compartments appeared to be full so she randomly chose one, hoping for the best.

"Um, would it be okay if I sat in here? All the others are full," she explained to a girl and two guys in a compartment.

"Sure," spoke up the brown haired boy.

"Ron! Stop staring!" the girl elbowed the red haired boy hard.

"Ow! Geez, Hermoine.." he said, gazing, awed, at the newcomer.

"Sorry about him," Hermoine said, with a bemused smile, "but I'm Hermoine Granger. I haven't seen you here before. New, by any chance?"

"Yeah," she said, gratefully sitting down and laughing.

"Well, I'm Harry, Harry Potter," said the brown haired boy. He gave her a warm smile.

"Oh, my gosh, I've heard and read so much about you!" she said, turning to him. "Did you really kill Voldemort?"

"Well, I wouldn't say killed is really the right word…" he answered modestly.

She nodded with a smile with a hint of surprise; the famous Harry Potter was nothing like she had expected. She turned to the red haired boy. "And who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Ron Weasley.. pleased to meet you.." he said as Hermoine elbowed him.

She giggled. 'Why are they all staring at me?' she wondered. "I'm California Drache."

"Cali.. fornia? Say, that's a place in the States, isn't it? THAT'S why you have an American accent!" Hermoine said automatically.

"Oh, is _that_ why you've all been staring at me this whole time?" Cali asked, blushing and feeling self-conscious all of a sudden.

"Um, yeah, sorry 'bout it.. it's just.. we're so used to.. you know, you just sound so different and it's.. it's rather neat."

Cali smiled. "Thanks, and it's ok, but I wish I had an accent like yours.. I love British accents."

Hermoine smiled. "I've read about the States before. There's not many witches and wizards, there, are there?"

"Um, no, but yeah, California's the sunny state on the west coast," she said. "And supposedly, Drache means 'dragon' in German.. my grandparents on my dad's side are German."

"Cool.." Ron said dazedly. "A nice state and a dragon.. wicked.."

Hermoine rolled her eyes. "Sorry, California, I don't think he's accustomed to having a pretty girl sitting a meter away from him."

California laughed. "Well call me Cali." The others nodded. Then she burst out with one of the many questions on her mind, desperate to hear about Hogwarts from its pupils. "Is it true that there are four houses?"

"Yup. We're all in Gryffindor," Harry explained.

"And what were the other three? I remember one that was like.. a snake or something."

"That's Slytherin," Harry said. "Our main rival."

"Oh.." she said. "I was actually kind of interested in that one.."

"Well, you don't want to get into that one," Hermoine said. "For starters, Draco Malfoy's in Slytherin." She put on a sour face.

"Ooh, I've heard of his family. They're really rich, aren't they?"

"Yes, the filthy rich little snobs," Hermoine said, with an air of disgust.

"Hmm.." Cali drifted off, twirling a pigtail, for a while till Harry broke the silence.

"So, the other two Houses are Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. They're both okay."

"Okay.." Cali said. "Man, I just can't believe I'm going to Hogwarts! Never in a million years.."

Hermoine smiled. There was something she could relate to. "Same with me. Of course, I live here in London, but my parents are both Muggles, so I was completely surprised when I got my letter. And now it's really nothing short of a second home."

Cali smiled. "My parents aren't Muggles, but they may as well have been.."

Hermoine, Harry, and Ron all listened eagerly as she recalled what had all happened to her in the last few months.

:: Flashback ::

A nine-year-old Cali was throwing a tantrum in her mother's car, though she knew she was too old to be whining. "Mom, I wanted that shirt!!" she whined. They had just left the mall, and though they came out with three bagfuls, Cali wasn't satisfied.

"Cali, you cannot just have every piece of clothing you like," her mother had told her.

She was pouting and her mother sighed. They got into the car and drove home, Cali sulking the whole way home. They had been sitting at a red light for what seemed like forever when Cali just blew up. "Arrgh!! Turn freakin GREEN! STUPID LIGHT!" she screeched. Strangely, the light turned green, started smoking, and finally exploded.

Though the light had been green, everyone was too shocked to drive.

:: end flashback ::

There were many incidents similar to that. Cali would be mad and glare at a car, causing a flat tire, or point at a sign, causing it to blow up. No one could find anything wrong with her, and her parents were told that she had strange and unknown telepathic powers, but Cali felt there was much more to be explained.

She had begun to study magic during every spare moment. She managed to find a couple of spells, but she had no wand so she figured if she was "psychic", she could find a replacement. She had looked over to her desk, pointed at a pen, and watched as it turned into a wand. She sat, shocked, for several moments, then regained her senses and shakily tried out the spells, finding that she could do them all within a few tries.

Cali had slowly learned magic, with her pen-wand, keeping it all from her parents. She had managed to keep it all secret, with her ability to make up the best lies, until about a year later, when she received a letter from Hogwarts.

"To Ms. C. Drache,

You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry..."

She had been stunned, so stunned, she dropped the letter as her father was walking past. He looked at her funny, and before she could stop him or even make something up, he grabbed the letter, read it, and yelled for her mother.

Obviously, they had demanded explanations. Cali had to tell them everything, from when she had first started researching about magic to, basically, now that she had been asked to go to a wizarding school. Her parents believed it all; they had no reason to doubt it, after all, especially after Cali cleaned the entire kitchen by means of her "wand."

Mr. and Mrs. Drache let their daughter go to Hogwarts. They surprised her by telling her that they were both wizards, and had moved away from England to escape capture by the evil Lord Voldemort. They had never told her of her wizarding blood to keep her from finding out about all the horrendous events that had taken place during the Dark Days of Voldemort.

Naturally, Cali was beyond stunned by this news, this revelation that had thrown her world and life into a whirlwind, so shocked that she forgot to be mad at her parents…

She was let into Hogwarts as a fifth year, the year a fourteen-year-old should be in, because of her knowledge of magic. She was grateful that she would not have to attend as a first year, for that would most embarrassing and most likely, boring, since she already knew all the material.

"So, here I am," Cali finished, to the surprised faces of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. "I've read so much in the last year, after knowing I'd be going here, even though I don't enjoy reading much at all… I just can't wait till we get there!"

They all smiled at her. "Well, being a fifth year already, you should know some about how it all works," Hermoine said. She went on to tell Cali all about classes, dorms, everything she could think of, and from Hermoine, it was a LOT. Yet, it was all from a Gryffindor's point of view.

"Hey.. I just had a thought. You're telling me all this because you're in Gryffindor. What if.. I don't get Sorted into Gryffindor?" Cali asked.

Everyone sat, wide-eyed with the sudden realization.

"Well.. that's a good point. But some things are the same.. I guess. Like.. you probably won't like Potions much, 'cause Professor Snape favours his House, the Slytherins, and bullies all the rest. So you should avoid making trouble in that class.. unless you get into Slytherin."

The air was now tense, with the thought that there might be a potential Slytherin sitting with them.

"But what's so bad about Slytherin?" Cali asked, confused. She had been interested in being in the House of cunning, sneakiness.. it fitted her well.

"Yeah, Granger, what IS so bad about Slytherin? After all.. I'm in it," drawled a familiar voice from the door of their compartment. Familiar, that is, to all but California.

"On the contrary, you're quite a large part of the unpleasantness," Hermoine muttered.

"Hm," he said dismissively. "Well, well, looks like I've found Potty, Weasel, and Mudblood. Who are you?" he said, looking at Cali with an eyebrow slightly raised.

"I'm California Drache, but call me Cali."

"Drache, eh? That's German for dragon."

Cali grinned. "Yup." 'Oh, my gosh, he's _cute_!' she thought. "Um, so what's your name?"

"I'm surprised you don't know," he said, smirking. "I'm Draco Malfoy. My name's dragon in Latin."

"Latin.." she grinned. "They've told me about you," Cali said, her green eyes widening. 'So this is Draco Malfoy… wow, I mean I've always liked British accents, but is it possible that his is even sexier than most? These three make him sound so evil, but I think he's rather cute. Besides.. the bad boy vibe isn't a horrible thing...' She grinned. "So.. you're in Slytherin?"

"Of course. I wouldn't stand being in any other House," he replied, glancing disgustedly at Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. "Especially Gryffindor."

Cali nodded. "Um, why don't you sit down?" She scooted over and blushed when he sat down next to her. But the moment was ruined as two other guys, clad in robes like Draco's busted in and said, "We're nearing Hogwarts."

Draco stood up, not taking his eyes off Cali. "You'd better get into your robes," he told her. "And I almost forgot. These are my friends.. Crabbe and Goyle."

Cali waved to them as they stumbled into the compartment, wanting a better look at her. Hermoine just rolled her eyes again.

"Go on, get out, we need to get ready.. you guys should go back to your compartment," Hermoine said, annoyed, pushing the Slytherins out the door.

"I'll stay if I want to, Mudblood," Draco said rudely. Cali suppressed a snort at the look of obvious frustration on Hermoine's face.

"Yeah, let him stay," Cali said, looking up innocently at Draco. He half- smiled at her and sat down again.

Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Cali put on their school robes and got ready.

"Don't you need to get your stuff ready?" Cali asked Draco.

"Nah, Crabbe or Goyle will."

Cali giggled. "That's nice of them."

Draco rolled his eyes. "They're just idiots."

Cali laughed. Then a voice informed them that they had arrived at Hogwarts. They all filed off the train and Draco said to Cali, "I'd better make sure Crabbe and Goyle don't get lost." He rolled his eyes again as she laughed.

"Okay.. see you later," she called after him. He turned around and gave her another one of his half-smiles.

Cali stood still in the crowd of students for awhile, and Hermoine pushed her on. "Oh, do keep walking," she said.

"Sorry," Cali said, and walked on till a large man approached her. She pretended not to see him and walked on, but he caught her. She would've screamed, but Harry, Ron, and Hermoine all greeted him.

"'ello, 'arry, Ron, 'ermoine. California Drache, I presume?"

"Er, yes," she said. "Sorry, you um.. scared mea bit..." she said, embarrassed.

"It's quite alright, miss," he said kindly. "I'm 'ere to tell you that though you're c'sidered a fifth year, you 'aven't been sorted so you need ta join the firs' 'ears in the Sorting Cer'mony."

She nodded her understanding, and followed him to where the first years were waiting. She was easily a head taller than most of them. She began thinking, quite dazedly, of all that had gone on.

**--Cali's POV--**

Wow.. I'm at Hogwarts already. And I've already met several people. Hermoine seems like she means well, but something about her she annoys me.. like she's a know-it-all.. and if anything.. I swear she's jealous..

Man, do I sound conceited but really.. it's the only reason she'd act like that. sigh I'm about to be Sorted. Argh.. good luck to me. I thought Slytherin sounded cool till Hermoine started ranting about it, but hey.. Draco's in Slytherin.. and he's right, him being in it makes it all the better.. haha, I guess I'm not REALLY having second thoughts...

--**Draco's POV**--

Hmm.. a new girl. California Drache.. Not a bad name at all. Wonder if Drache is a respectable family in the States, or Germany I suppose… California.. Father's taken me there once. Yes, I liked that place. And Drache.. dragon.. so her name is like mine..

She seems cool.. a lot cooler than Potter, Weasley, and Granger. Why in Merlin's name was she sitting with them? She could've sat with me.. I would've let her.. pause Yeah, I would've.

She _looks_ like she belongs in Slytherin. Green tank.. which she looked totally hot in.. grin and green and silver ribbons.. She even has green eyes. You know.. she probably didn't even know those are the Slytherin colours.. she definitely looks like she should be in Slytherin. She acts it a bit, too. Not a bad girl indeed…

But then again, I don't think I should be too nice to her yet.. what if she gets Sorted into another House? sigh We'll just have to see…

--**Hermoine's POV**--

Fifth year, here I come. Who knows what'll happen now? Every year something strange happens..

So there's a newcomer, and she's not even starting in first year. She might be a competitor for the best student! Considering that she learnt spells on her own and all. I have to admit.. she's got to be rather smart. I suppose I like her alright. But she seems to have something for Malfoy. That's never good. And she had interests in being Sorted into Slytherin? An even worse sign. I can't tell if I convinced her to not want to be in Slytherin. But if she does like Malfoy.. she'll want to. I think I'll keep being nice to her.. unless she gets into Slytherin.

--**3rd person**--

Cali felt extremely nervous walking in the Great Hall with all the first years. She trailed behind them, trying to ignore the looks she was getting from the male parts of the students, even if she was wearing the school robes. Her silver-blonde hair was of nice contrast to the black colour of her robes. She was perfectly aware that well, she was attractive, and at times, such as today in the train with Draco, she enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were walking with the other students to the Great Hall.

"So, what do you think of California?"

"I think she's nice, but do you think there's… more to her that she's not showing yet?" Harry whispered, for it was Professor Severus Snape leading them to the Great Hall. He would take points form Gryffindor for any valid reason he could find.

"EXACTLY!" Hermoine answered. Harry shushed her and they looked innocently about when Snape whirled around.

"I meant, exactly, there's something about her that I don't trust."

"Oh, lay off'a her. She's a cutie, right, Harry?" Ron said.

Harry sighed, but nodded. "Sorry, Hermoine, but I have to agree with Ron on that one."

Hermoine rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day. "So she's got good looks. ("No joke," Ron commented) So what? Someone could've made her like that to.. deceive everyone!" Hermoine said, babbling on and on.

"ANYWAYS," Harry said, stopping Hermoine before she started yelling. "We'll just see what happens when she gets Sorted. If she gets Sorted to Gryffindor, there's nothing wrong with her."

"You'll see," Ron finished.

The first years plus Cali reached the front of the Great Hall and Professor Dumbledore spoke. "Welcome to Hogwarts. We are now going to perform the Sorting Ceremony. Professor McGonagall?"

McGonagall stood up and walked to the stool with the Sorting Hat. "First years, when I call your name, come forward and I will place the Sorting Hat upon your head and you will be Sorted into one of our four Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin."

Cali sighed. She had a feeling that the people she'd met so far would treat her according to what House she was put in. 'This is it,' she told herself.

After awhile, she realized that she would be called last, for she was a fifth year. That let her relax a bit, till the last of the first years was sorted.

"Now, we have a fifth year joining us from the States. California Drache, please come forward."

Cali walked up to the stool and sat down, fully aware of all the eyes staring at her. Everyone, even the teachers, took note of the looks of her, that she looked like she was already in Slytherin.

Professor McGonagall placed the Hat on her head and Cali immediately heard a voice in her head.

"Hm.." the Hat said. "Sweet, yet with an edge. You have a knack at spells already.. a good student. You were very determined to master the spells… You're independent and mischievous. It should be.. Gryffindor or Slytherin?"

Cali sighed. 'I suppose I'll have friends on both sides. I don't care then..' she thought, but there was some deeper feeling not even the Sorting Hat could see.

"Then you'll be in GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted, and the Gryffindors, mainly the males cheered loudly.

Cali grinned at Harry, Ron (who looked as if he had just won the Quidditch Cup single-handedly), and Hermoine. Ron then gave Hermoine a 'I-told-you- so' look. Surprisingly, Hermoine just smiled. "I guess you're right," she said, joining in on the clapping.

Cali was all smiles sitting down next to Hermoine at the Gryffindor table until she looked around and rested her eyes on Draco Malfoy.

Her heart dropped.

"Can we talk?" she mouthed to him.

He scowled, but instantly regaining his composure, nodded slightly.

She flashed a grateful smile at him, which lifted his spirits significantly.

Cali had never had such a meal than the one she took part in at Hogwarts. She plates kept filling themselves up, so they were never empty, the pitchers did the same. There was such an assortment of food one never quite knew where to start.

The Gryffindor table was in high spirits, from the thrill of being back in Hogwarts, all the food, and getting the hot new girl in their House. Everyone chatted excitedly, everyone but Cali, who could not get her mind off Draco.

'Arrgh, why didn't I think of this before? Now he probably won't like me because I'm in Gryffindor. Gosh, why does it matter so much?' she wondered. 'Just 'cause I'm in another House, the House of the largest rivalry, doesn't mean we're forbidden to like each other.. and why do Gryffindor and Slytherin have such a rivalry in the first place?' she thought angrily. This was something she'd HAVE to find out. 'It's just not fair...' she said to herself.

"Oh, did you say something?" Ron asked her and the whole table quieted to hear what she had to say.

"Well, um, actually, I do have a question," she said, looking around. This was another time being attractive came in handy.

"Well, then ask away!" said Fred Weasley.

"Okay, um.. why is that Gryffindor and Slytherin have such a big rivalry?" she asked, hoping it wouldn't be one of those questions with a horribly inappropriate answer. "Well?"

All the Gryffindors looked at each other.

"Uh-oh, I shouldn't have asked.."

"No, it's not that," George Weasley said.

"We.. don't really know," Fred finished and the Gryffindors nodded.

"Oh.. well, is that stupid or what?!" Cali bursted out, making them jump a little.

"Err.. Cali?" Hermoine said. "Anything wrong?"

"YES! I mean, yes, I was just curious.. you know.." she went to her last resort, flashing a huge smile.

Everyone nodded as if they knew what was going on.

"It's all about acceptance," she muttered, sighing.

Soon, talk resumed at the Gryffindor table, while Cali just looked positively perplexed. She kept furtively shooting glances over the Slytherin table and rolled her eyes when the guys whistled at her.

She realized that most every guy but Draco would look back at her. He did once, but his face was set in a mask of apathy. What she didn't take the time to see was that beneath the mask was a perplexed look identical to hers, perhaps with a hint of regret.

Dinner seemed to last an eternity to Cali, despite the Gryffindors' infectious enthusiasm. She continued casting wistful glances at Draco, none of which were returned. The other Slytherin guys, however, continued grinning at her. A couple of times she smiled back, even a small smile, and the guys went wild. She then turn back around, rolling her eyes.

After a couple more minutes, which felt endless to California, dinner began coming to an end.

"Students, you will now proceed back to your dorms. Prefects will lead everyone up to their Houses. No one is to be outside of their dorms after hours," McGonagall instructed.

Everyone got up, and there was automatically mass confusion but there was only one thing on Cali's mind: finding Draco.

She stood up and craned her neck to see around her. She considered standing up on a chair, but decided against it. Then all of a sudden, she saw a flash of silver-blonde hair that did not belong to her.

"Draco!" she called out but her voice didn't quite carry over the noise. That, and she realized how dumb she must've looked yelling like such.

She groaned. He was leaving the Great Hall fast and she was.. well, she was stuck. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"Mind telepathy!" she said happily. "I knew I was psychic for some reason!"

Then she concentrated hard, since connecting minds with him was completely new. "Draco, it's me, Cali. I'm talking to you through mind telepathy."

She giggled as he turned around, gazed at her, then stopped. "Wait for me outside the door.. please?"

That was more than enough, and she knew it. She slowly moved forward in the crowd of already confused first years and yelling prefects till finally she exited the Great Hall.

She exited so quickly, she nearly ran right into who she was looking for.. Draco Malfoy.

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PLEASE tell me what you think, especially if I've e-mailed this to you before posting it, I really appreciate the feedback.

Angelee


	2. Can I be a Slythindor?

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Two: Can I Be A Slythindor?

By Angelee

Yayy.. chapter two. I really like this fic so far and I've gotten positive feedback.. so one with the story!

Cali's already met a lot of people, some that envy her, some that fancy her, some that don't quite know what to think.. and through all this, she's torn inside.. what will she tell Draco?

-----

"Oh." Cali blushed. "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's okay, I wouldn't have minded," he smirked.

Cali smiled but the smile quickly faded. "So.. I didn't get Sorted into Slytherin.."

"No, you didn't.." Draco replied.

Cali's eyes were downcast for a moment but then her face took on a look of anger. "Argh, it's just not FAIR!"

Draco looked a bit taken back. "What isn't?"

"Well, I know for a fact that you'd like me a lot better if I were in Slytherin. But why? Just because I'm in Gryffindor.." she sighed. "It's just.." she trailed off, thoughts furiously running through her head.

He sighed, sounding a bit frustrated. "To be honest… I'd like if you weren't in Gryffindor, but Cali," he placed his fingers under her chin, directing her eyes up to his. "I think… This doesn't mean I'll stop wanting to see you," he said, choosing his words carefully.

Cali looked up at him with pain and longing then told him, "I just don't see why it should be a big deal at all."

Then he moved his hand from under her chin to rest on her shoulder. "Cali.. it's just the way things are, the way they've been for as long as I can remember. I don't like those filthy Mudbloods, they shouldn't be here-" He stopped short. "You—you are pure-blooded.. right?" he asked, suddenly worried.

She smiled and said, "Yes, I am."

He sighed. "Phew. But that's how it is.. Slytherin and Gryffindor have never liked each other, even when my parents were here.. and I don't see anything wrong with it.."

She nodded, processing this information. "Well, if that's so.. I swear I'm going to find out why.. there better be a good reason."

He smiled at her as she looked straight into his eyes. She tentatively raised her own hand to stroke a strand of his silky, white-blonde hair that matched hers exactly in all but length. Draco always prided himself in keeping a certain kind of poise about him, and this generally entailed not allowing people to touch his hair, but something in her sparkling emeralds unconsciously tugged at his heart.

The crowd of students was thinning out as the prefects and professors sorted out the students. "Well.. we should get going.." Draco said. "To our respective Houses," he added in a softer tone.

Cali nodded and with one final look, they separated, Cali following some stray Gryffindors to Gryffindor Tower and Draco on his way to the Slytherin Dungeons.

After awhile, the lost group of Gryffindors found their way to the fat lady portrait, sighing in relief. But when the lady asked for the password, they all realized that they had no idea. Fortunately, a prefect came along shortly, on the patrol for lost Gryffindors.

When Cali arrived at the door for fifth year girls, she could hear talking inside. The person currently talking, she recognized, was none other but Hermoine.

"Even though she _is_ in Gryffindor, I still don't completely trust her. I mean, she's taken a liking to Malfoy, and you'd think he'd hate her since she's not in Slytherin; she's in Gryffindor, the 'worst of them all'-"

"He must like her, too, then," another girl interrupted.

There was a pause and Hermoine agreed. "I suppose so. But doesn't she _look_ like she's in Slytherin? She's got green eyes and her clothes.. hmm, I just realized that her hair is the exact same colour as Malfoy's!"

There was a gasp from the other girl, whose voice Cali didn't recognize. "You don't think.. she's part.. part.." the unknown girl stuttered.

"Part veela?" another unfamiliar voice finished.

"Yeah.." the first voice answered.

"Maybe, who knows," Hermoine said darkly then continued her earlier topic. "And seriously, she was wearing green and silver ribbons in that hair of hers AND a green tank.. she was sitting with Harry, Ron, and I on the train. I saw it before she put her robes on," she explained.

"Wow.. you're so smart, Hermoine," the girl said.

Hermoine shook off the girl's comment. "There's something else. Supposedly, she already knows spells without ever coming here. She must be smart, too."

"Yeah, she could be competition for top of our class."

There was an uncomfortable pause and Cali chose that moment to walk in.

"Why, hello, Cali," Hermoine greeted her, looking guilty.

'We were just talking about you,' Cali thought, scowling inwardly.

"Hey, Hermoine. And you two are..?"

"Lavender Brown."

"Parvati Patil."

"Ok, well, what's up?"

"Uhh.. we were just talking. Did you get lost or something?"

"Yeah, I mean, kinda.." She thought about how she probably wouldn't have been lost if she hadn't talked with Draco. "Um.. well, I followed a couple of other lost people and a prefect let us in with the password."

"I see.." Hermoine said suspiciously. "Well, we better get ready for bed, it's getting late."

"Okay.."

All three of them changed into their pajamas. Hermoine had a simple red and yellow plaid nightgown, Lavender wore a purple and blue patterned nightgown, and Cali wore a green camisole with pajama pants. The pants were white with green dragons printed on them.

"Did you know," Hermoine could not keep this comment to herself, "that green and silver are the Slytherin colours? And that the sign of Slytherin is a serpent?"

Cali looked down at herself and her eyes widened, along with Hermoine and Lavender's. "Well I saw their banners at dinner, but no, I didn't.. green has always been one of favourite colours."

"Hmm.." was all Hermoine said, but Cali could tell she was really suspicious of her now.

'Why couldn't she just stick to innocent little doggies and kitties,' Cali imagine Hermoine to be thinking.

Cali just stayed quiet. She was really starting to not like Hermoine quite as much as she had on the train, but decided that she would not get any sleep feeling mad.

So much for sleep. The slow breathing of Hermoine, Lavender, and Parvati could soon be heard, but Cali, on the other hand lay, wide-awake, thinking of one person..

She sighed. 'Why can I not stop thinking about him? I only just met him today… and these Gryffindors keep making it into a bigger deal than it is… geez.' She paused, letting her thoughts form slowly. 'It would all be different if I were in Slytherin, but obviously-' - she looked around at the scarlet and gold curtains around her bed - 'I'm not. Ugh, I just can't understand why Slytherin and Gryffindor hate each other. There must be some reason.. I'll find out,' she promised.

'He did say he still wanted to be friends though.' At that, she cracked a grin. 'And maybe that's a lot coming from him. But he would like me more of I wasn't in Gryffindor. Argh. It just isn't right. There better be a very good reason for all this..'

Her thoughts would not stop galloping round and round. In the end, after making sure the other three were fast asleep, she snuck out of the room. She walked down the stairs into the Common Room and sat down, staring at the fire that was still ablaze. After staring into it for awhile, she swore she could see Draco's face in the fire.

Then all of a sudden, the fire died out. She screamed in fright and almost immediately, there were footsteps. Cali wasn't sure she had a very good explanation for being out of bed at this time, so she did the first thing she could think of; she stumbled out the portrait hole, guided only by a thin beam of moonlight.

Once out in the hallway, the cold air hit her and she cursed forcefully for not bringing along a jacket. 'Well, I can't go back now, at least not for awhile,' she thought regretfully.

There wasn't much to do, besides walking around, so that's just what she did. Somehow, she found herself at the entrance to the Great Hall after walking down the stairs, which, thankfully, did not change while she was on them.

"Oh, just great. Why didn't I think of this before I left Gryffindor Tower? I DON'T KNOW THE WAY BACK!" she said to herself, and her voice carried a little more loudly than she had intended. She clapped a hand over her mouth, remembering a moment too late that it was in the middle of the night.

"And I'm not even supposed to be out here.." she moaned. "What am I supposed to do, sit out here till daylight? This is great, just great.."

Cali decided after awhile that it couldn't hurt much to try to find her way back. She attempted to retrace her steps. Soon, she noticed that the air was colder. With a huff of frustration, she turned to go back in the direction she'd come from when she almost bumped into something.

The offending object took his hood off, pulled a lantern out of his robes, and when her eyes adjusted, he grinned at her. It wasn't a thing she'd nearly bumped into; it was a person!

"DRACO MALFOY!" she screeched, forgetting that it was after hours again, "You scared the hell out of me!"

She could see him smirking. "Sorry, Cali, but may I ask what you're doing... out in front of the Slytherin Dungeons?"

She stared and after a moment, she gave a sigh of resignation. "Well, I'll be. I ended up in front of the dorms of the House of the most rivalry! Well, what do you know?"

They sat down and she started explaining herself, in lower tones this time, "Well, I couldn't get to sleep.. so I went down to the Common Room-"

"Too busy thinking of me?"

Cali rolled her eyes, her blush hidden in the semi-darkness. "That _may _have been part of it. But anyways, after awhile, the fire went out without warning so I screamed-"

"You've been doing a lot of exercising your vocal cords tonight?"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault!"

"That you ended up getting lost in the school after hours, you mean?" he interjected, once again, more as a statement than a question.

Cali glared at him, but he just grinned. She couldn't help but melt. "Draco…" She tried telling him off, but couldn't.

He smirked. "I rather know I'm irresistible."

She rolled her eyes again, catching his pompous expression in the flickers of the lantern. She lowered her voice to a whisper. " And you may be right about that."

He smiled at her and all of a sudden blurted, "Are you cold?"

She then realized that she was only wearing a camisole and pajama pants and that the Slytherin Dungeons must be lower in the school, for she was quite freezing by now.

She nodded sheepishly. "I forgot a jacket.."

"Here.." Draco put his arm around her, pulling his cloak around the both of them, and she smiled.

"Thanks…" Had Cali known Draco better, she would've been surprised at this show of kindness, or perhaps this lack of his normal selfishness.

He also smiled, void of a smirk, as she scooted closer to him. They sat down, backs against the cold stone wall. "Hey," he said, getting an idea, "do you wanna come in the Dungeons?"

She was about to answer when Draco's face, pale in the light of the lantern, went even whiter.

"I.. what is it?" She looked around and nearly screamed for the fourth time that night.

"Pro-professor Snape, I-" Draco started, but Snape, stepping into the moonlight, cut him off.

"If you happen to have a good reason to be up after hours, and I am most interested to hear it.. Draco, California, follow me." He then whirled around, holding his own lantern above his head, not leaving them any choice but to obey.

They followed Snape deeper into the school, to his office, Cali's eyes wide but Draco's calm. He knew Snape wasn't likely to give him any punishment, almost definitely so after a feasible explanation.

"He knows my name?" Cali hissed to Draco.

"I think everybody does."

She rolled her eyes. _"You probably won't like Potions much, 'cause Professor Snape favours his House, the Slytherins, and bullies all the rest,"_ Hermoine had said on the train, Cali remembered nervously. She had no more time to dwell upon it, for they had reached Snape's office. Draco entered first, then Cali.

"Mister Malfoy, Miss Drache, care to explain yourselves?" Snape asked.

"Well, you see,--" Draco and Cali started in unison. They stopped short, glancing at each other, then continued.

"I left the Common Room-" Cali said at the same time Draco said, "She left Gryffindor Tower-"

Snape looked quite exasperated. "Malfoy, you first," he commanded.

"Well," Draco said, looking up innocently at Snape, once again taking advantage of his professor's obvious favouritism, "Cali left her Common Room, feeling a slight sense of insomnia-" he grinned.

"I am NOT an insomniac!" she said, glaring at Draco.

"Silence!" Snape demanded. "Malfoy, continue."

"Okay, so I meant to say that she couldn't fall asleep, for she was too busy thinking of me-"

Though this was true, Cali hit Draco across the arm and said, rather calmly, "This is getting nowhere. Professor, may I continue?"

To everyone's surprise, Snape nodded slightly, and Draco rubbed his sore arm though Cali hadn't hit him that hard.

"I did leave Gryffindor Tower, and decided to take a walk around the school, hoping to get my mind off... things."

"I'm not a 'thing!'" Draco protested, feigning a hurt expression.

Cali glanced up uneasily at Snape, who spoke. "So you like young Mister Malfoy?" he asked bemusedly.

"Er.." Cali blushed as Draco tried not to snicker too loudly.

"Never mind that," Snape said, actually saving Cali of further embarrassment. "Leaving dorms after hours? Ten points from Gryffindor," he pronounced.

Cali remembered vaguely from the welcoming feast about the Inter-House Competition. She remembered enough to know that getting points off wasn't a good thing, but that wasn't the matter at hand.

"Professor, please don't take any points from Slytherin, 'cause if Draco hadn't been there to find me, I'd probably still be wandering the school," she said in a rush.

"Do calm down, Miss Drache, I wasn't planning on taking points from my own House," Snape said, his lip curling.

"Oh." Cali looked down, embarrassed again.

"Anything to add, Draco?" Snape asked.

"Nope, not really, Professor," Draco drawled.

"Then Draco, you can take Miss Drache back to Gryffindor Tower," Snape said, dismissing them. "And I better not find you two out after hours again," he hissed at their retreating forms.

Carefully shutting the door, Cali turned to Draco, expecting him to start for Gryffindor Tower. But he merely whirled around, grabbing her by the shoulders to prevent her from crashing into him, since she couldn't stop herself this time.

"Hey," he whispered, looking down into her curious eyes. "Snape said I _could_ take you back to Gryffindor Tower."

"Yeah?" she said. "I heard him, too."

"Nooo," he said, laughing. "What I meant was, he said I _could_. So I don't have to, do I?"

She stared. "Well, no… but how am I supposed to get back on my own?" she asked indignantly. 'He wouldn't just leave me here in the dark would he?' she wondered. A voice in her head seemed to be saying, 'Sure he would.'

Draco laughed again. "You are so thick," he told her. "What I mean is that you should just stay here. With me."

Cali continued staring. "You mean.. in the _Slytherin dungeons_?"

Draco nodded, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Pipe down, won't you? If Snape hears us, he might possibly give me my first detention ever."

"Detention with you? I don't see any downside to that," Cali said without thinking. She then clapped her hand over Draco's who then removed his hand, turning slightly red.

He cleared his throat. "No, there isn't any downside," he said seriously, making Cali giggle, "but believe me, detention is not fun, boring, yes, but NEVER fun."

She nodded. "Whatever you say.. but.. am I allowed to even go in there?"

"No, not really," he said nonchalantly. "So, you coming or not? I guess if you _really _wanted to go back to those Gryffindors I'll take you," he said.

She smiled, making up her mind. "I think.. I'll stay with you," she said sweetly.

He grinned. "Come on, then." He lead her back to the entrance of the Dungeons, murmured something, the password she guessed, and they walked through.

Cali gazed about. Though the room was lit by only moonlight, she could make out the fireplace, a marble table, couches.. She took note of the smooth, polished black marble throughout the room, draped with rich green tapestries. The Slytherin common room did not have the same warm and genial vibe as the Gryffindor one, but she found herself admiring its sophisticated elegance.

"It's nice," she whispered, quietly and truthfully.

Draco nodded, waving an arm over the room. "Pick a couch, any couch, unless.. you'd like to come up and sleep in the dorms with me?" he smirked, grinning slyly at her.

She hit him on the arm again. "And what would the other guys would think?"

Draco considered this with a serious face. "Well, Crabbe and Goyle would do no less than goggle, but they'd never tell if I told them not to. As for the others, I could just," he shrugged, "hit them over the head with a broomstick and put a bottle of pills next to their beds. Explanations can wait till morning."

Cali suppressed a laugh. She seemed to have almost no control over her voice, which was quite unfortunate, considering they were up in the dead of the night. "Well.." she said, "I guess I should just pick a couch."

Then she shivered. Obviously, Draco no longer had his arm around her. He watched her for a moment then his eyes flickered with another idea.

"I could stay down here with you," he suggested.

Cali took on a look of mock surprise. "You weren't planning on it?!"

Draco played along. "Nope, never thought of it, really."

Cali smiled, rolling her eyes a bit.

"Well, then.." Draco led the way over to the couches, and plopped down gracefully (yes, it is possible, at least for Draco it is) on a rather large one. Cali promptly sat down next to him. He arranged himself against a corner of the couch, and she curled up next to him. After a moment's consideration, she mischievously moved to lay her head in his lap.

After they were comfortable, they carried on a conversation in whispers. Cali sighed. "You know we only met a few hours ago… but I feel closer to you than anyone else here..." she said.

Draco smiled, gazing down at her. He definitely admired her appearance, especially as the artificial moonlight glanced off her silvery hair and smooth features. "So tell me," he said, wanting to ask her the question that had been in his head since the Sorting. "Did you want to be Sorted into Gryffindor?"

At that, Cali's eyes narrowed. "Yes. The Sorting Hat told me it was between putting me in Gryffindor and Slytherin, and I told it that I didn't really have a preference since I figured I'd have friends in either House… though for a moment, while Hermoine was ranting about Slytherin, I didn't want to.. but then.. I met you." She paused.

"Then you wanted to again…?"

Cali smiled. "Guess so."

"But then.. you were put in Gryffindor."

Cali nodded.

"But..." Draco could not believe he was saying this. "You've probably heard this before, but you look like you should be in Slytherin!"

Cali smiled. "Yeah, I heard Hermoine saying stuff 'bout it before I went in our dorm."

"Does she like you?" Draco wondered.

"Nope," Cali said simply. "She was nice to me on the train, for good impression, I assume, but even then, before I heard her spill her suspicions to Lavender and Parva, whatever their names are, it was pretty obvious that she doesn't like me."

Draco snorted. "Don't worry about her, she's nothing but a filthy Mudblood. You don't need her."

"Mudblood?" she said, feeling quite peculiar as the word rolled off her tongue. "You mean Muggle?"

"Mudblood's a more accurate term," he answered.

She just nodded. Sometimes she felt like a 'Mudblood' herself; her parents had never told her anything of their past till she figured it out for herself.

"She's jealous," Cali stated bluntly.

"Jealous? I never thought of that one," Draco said. "Excellent, I'll add it to my 'Why I Hate Hermoine Granger' list."

Cali stared. "You have a list?"

"Yep, I've got thirty-four reasons and oh, thirty-five now."

"You.. oh wait." Cali realized she had been had.

"Hey, I just remembered something," she said suddenly.

"Wonderful, care to tell?"

She glared. "I remember Hermoine-'

"Don't say her name. It gives me a headache."

"Stop interrupting!" she hissed. "Now, she said that Snape is mean to everyone but Slytherins. But he didn't seem entirely nasty to me."

Draco's eyes widened. "Yeah, I thought he was being strangely nice to you. He let you speak before I finished!"

Cali rolled her eyes. "So why do you think he doesn't hate me?"

"Maaaybe," he drawled. "'cause you're cute?"

She blushed. "I'm sure, er, I'm hoping he's not like that." Her blush immediately turned into a shudder.

Draco laughed, trying to stifle a yawn, but to no avail. Cali looked up into his eyes, a sparkling silver colour now, and whispered, "You tired?"

He shook his head but let out another yawn. Cali giggled.

"Wait here," he told her, balling up his cloak to pillow her head as he got up. "I'll be right back."

Draco quickly disappeared into the darkness. She nodded feeling suddenly cold again. She sighed, sitting up and wrapping the cloak around herself. There was no doubt about it. California Drache was most definitely interested in Draco Malfoy.

A moment later, while Cali was rubbing her arms, trying to warm up inside the silky cloak, Draco snuck up behind her and grabbed her, nearly causing the entire couch to topple over.

Needless to say, Cali screamed.

"Shhh!" he hissed. He came back around the couch, a blanket draped over his shoulder and wearing his pajamas ('How cute!' Cali thought delightedly).

They settled themselves back on the couch and Draco pulled the blanket over them. He watched, somewhat mesmerized, as Cali undid the ribbons that had been sliding slowly down her hair all day. She ran her fingers through a couple of strands, though it looked like it had just been combed. He ran his own fingers through the hair cascading down her back.

He stopped suddenly. 'No way her hair's softer than mine!' he thought, shocked. Cali giggled, as if she knew what he had thought. But all his thoughts melted as she lay back against him. They smiled. Draco buried his face in her hair for a moment. She smelled faintly of raspberries.

Then, it was completely silent as they fell to sleep on the Slytherin Dungeons couch.

-----

Phew, it took me awhile to make the wording exactly how I wanted it.

Hope you're liking this so far.. I didn't realize Cali was somewhat of a "Mary-Sue"; actually, I didn't know WHAT a Mary-Sue was till I got the review about it. Truthfully, that's how I meant for her to be so I don't suppose it'll change much. Sorry if you wanted it changed. And thanks for the reviews!! It's a really great feeling knowing that people really like your fic.

Please tell me if you like this, if you think Cali's an okay character. Knowing that there's even one person out there who wants you to keep writing is a HUGE motivation. I'll keep working over the weekend!

Angelee


	3. Boxers of Briefs?

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Three: Boxers or Briefs?

Yay! Angel of Music doesn't really think Cali's a Mary Sue! I've decided to try and make her match my personality more.. 'cause I'm not a Mary Sue. Lol.

Thankies to: Sunny, Kaesa, PreCiouS juLz, Angel of Music, anonymous, and linzi!! Reviews really do mean a lot to me, knowing that you've amused someone with writing. )

So Snape doesn't lethally despise a Gryffindor?!; Cali's lost points for Gryffindor on her first day; could Hermoine possibly be JEALOUS?; and most of all, has Draco found true love??

Oh, and more of those short POV changes in this chapter.

-----

The artificial sunlight warmed the room by no more than a few degrees. The Slytherin dungeons, however, were underground, so this was a big enough change to awaken Cali from her sleep.

Without opening her eyes, she shifted around, burying deeper into her blankets. She felt so pleasantly warm and secure; surely it couldn't be so toasty in between some sheets?

Then a subtle movement from behind her jerked Cali awake with a start. Her eyes flew open as the memories of the wee hours of the morning hit her hard in the face.

For one, she wasn't in the Gryffindor fifth year girls' room. She most _certainly _wasn't in her room back in at home. Her eyes darted around, and she realized that she was in fact, in the Slytherin Dungeons.

Not to mention, she was on a couch with Draco Malfoy.

Draco, then, had shifted slightly behind her. She turned around and smiled fondly, despite her heart racing. He was so angelic when he slept. 'Actually,' she thought, 'he always looks strangely angelic to me.. even though he's not.' She settled down again, about to succumb to sleep, to welcome warmth, when a loud, piercing, most unwelcome cry filled the air.

"DRA-A-ACO! HOW COULD YOU?!" whined the voice of, Cali remembered from King's Cross, Pansy Parkinson.

And with this, Draco carefully opened one eye, and nearly groaned out loud at whom he saw. Pansy Parkinson, his date for the Yule Ball last year, and who'd fancied him for as long as he could remember, was STILL under the impression that he liked her.

"Pansy, could you do me a favor-"

"Maybe if you explained yourself-"

"-and bugger off?"

"What? I... ARGH! And with that stupid, blonde GRYFFINDOR! What's a GRYFFINDOR doing here anyway?!" Pansy shrieked. Cali tried to keep from covering her ears to block out the high pitched shrieks.

"HEY!" Draco shouted, looking slightly affronted. "I'M BLONDE, TOO!"

Pansy gave a strangled, constipated-sounding noise. Draco wanted to yell "_This_ Gryffindor is better than you any day!" but Pansy had already stomped off.

It was no use of further waking up all of Slytherin. Pansy had been right about something: the Slytherins would no doubt have a problem with a Gryffindor in their Common Room, one who looked like she more belonged in their House or not.

Draco sighed, frustrated, then looked down for the first time since waking up. Cali was shaking with silent laughter, but she still managed to choke out "that was mean!"

"Hmph. As if you wouldn't have done the same thing," Draco retorted, but with a glint in his eye.

"Wha-what are you implying?" Cali said, having resolved to giggling uncontrollably.

"Nothing," he smiled his angelic smile that stated he meant anything but angelic, "nothing at all."

Cali smiled, looking around. It was true; the Dungeons didn't have half the inviting feel as the Gryffindor Common Room. They lacked the warm colours Gryffindor Common Room had.

"Oh," she realized. "Gryffindor."

"What about the nuthouse?"

Cali rolled her eyes. "I should be getting back. I'll have the greatest time spinning up a story that Hermoine'll believe. If Hermoine doesn't buy it, Lavender and Parva-what's-her-name won't, either."

"How 'bout letting me go up there with you and testifying?"

"Oh, I can just see it now. 'I fell out of bed and tumbled all the way down and into the Slytherin Dungeons, where I met Draco. We spent the night together, and oh, he can tell you it's true, too.'"

Draco smirked. "Works for me."

Cali smiled and looked up into his eyes. 'Why couldn't I just have asked to be in Slytherin?' she wondered. She wouldn't have to leave this: the thin rays of light giving Draco's hair highlights, which should've been impossible for hair his colour; he lay with his against the back of the couch, and she lay against him; he had one arm draped lazily over her waist. How they'd managed to stay on the couch without falling off even once was a question, but one of very little importance.

"Well, then.." Cali remembered last night when Draco had said those words, leading them to the couch. She was now muttering them, getting up.

They stretched and yawned. Cali had a dull pain in her side, probably from not sleeping in a proper bed, but she barely paid any attention to it as she turned around, hugging Draco around the waist, squeezing gently. He awkwardly put his arms around her, not used to being hugged.

"Thanks," Cali said, as they started off to Gryffindor Tower.

It was never spoken what Cali was thanking him for, but that wasn't needed, either. He felt it; he knew.

Two hours later; breakfast in the Great Hall

Cali sat, a spark of excitement in her stomach. It was that fluttery pit feeling she often got when she was in love, and now, there was a stronger, more pleasantly distracting version of it when the feelings were returned. She barely ate, for she was afraid it would all come bubbling back up. Instead, she contented herself with gazing across the hall at a certain blonde Slytherin who this time, returned her glance.

'And to think.. I could be sitting over there.. if I had just requested Slytherin over Gryffindor..' she thought sadly. 'Well, what's done is done.. might as well try and make the best of it.'

At the exact moment she looked up, attempting to extract herself from a trance, Hermoine walked into the Great Hall, flanked by Lavender and Parvati. Trailing them was Harry and Ron.

The group split: Hermoine, Lavender and Parvati coming down one side of the table; Harry and Ron walking down the other.

Cali sighed in relief when Hermoine's half of the group started down the side of the table opposite her. She was glad that it was Harry and Ron coming to sit next to her, though she was pretty sure Hermoine had planned it out like that.

What surprised her was that Ron was no longer looking staring dazedly at her, instead, he was he looked highly shocked. It seemed as if he were trying to give her an icy glare, but his curiousity wouldn't allow it. He looked rather ridiculous and Cali had to fight down an urge to giggle. Harry looked less insulted so Cali decided it was safer to ask him about it.

"Harry?"

He looked up from a mouthful of eggs.

"Harry, swallow your eggs first," she laughed. He did so. "Now.. what's up with Ron?"

At this, Harry almost laughed himself. "Ron's all down 'cause you spent the night with Malfoy."

Cali was in shock. "How.. the heck did you guys find out?!?"

Harry shrugged it off. "So you like him?" he asked, trying to keep the disgust out of his voice.

"Yeah," Cali said smiling dreamily. Then she snapped back into her thoughts.

It was no lie; she had spent the night in the Slytherin Dungeons... on a couch... with Draco. It had happened, and she was perfectly glad it had, but how did they find out about it.. considering it was only breakfast..

She had a strong feeling that this had a lot to do with a certain Slytherin. Someone who had seen them. Someone who was jealous. Pansy.

"Nevermind," Cali muttered, getting up. "Excuse me for a moment, I do think there is a Slytherin deserving of a very large smacking."

She stopped, turning around, aware of the shocked silence. "What...?"

Harry continued staring at her, his face completely white. Even his hair seemed to be standing on end. "Not here.. certainly.. you could..." he stuttered, rolling his eyes.

Then it hit her.

"NOT THAT WAY!" she screeched exasperatedly.

A sea of heads whirled around, giving an aerial effect of a whirlpool. Then, true to her word, Cali strode quickly, purposefully across the Great Hall and down the aisle between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables. She stopped short behind Pansy Parkinson, whose group of Slytherin girls had purposely ignored her screaming, and proceeded to tell her off. After about half a minute of her ranting ('Wow, I haven't seen that kind of creativity and fluency since well, the last time I heard myself,' Draco thought), she paused to take a very audible breath.

"-doesn't even like you, much less love you! I mean, with those clothes, that hair, that attitude, and - blech! - that face!"

Pansy turned slowly around, surrounded by a clump of glares from her fellow Slytherin girls, and glared her up and down. "And just when did he say that?"

"Oh, I don't really think we need words. And obviously you like Draco.. so don't worry. _Very_ sorry," she said sarcastically, "but I've got the 'love interest' department covered. You just stick with the 'morally detested' section. Got it?"

Pansy, being a true Slytherin girl, raised an eyebrow with much finesse, but Cali was hardly phased as she returned the look.

"Good." Cali whirled around, her hair, currently loose and billowing, surrounding her in a perfect circle for a split second. And in that fraction of a moment, she caught Draco's eye. He was trying very hard not to snicker out loud.

Satisfied, Cali breezed back to the Gryffindor table, people moving aside for her in fear, admiration, or a little bit of both.

She slid gracefully into her seat between Harry and George Weasley. George clapped her on the back; Harry was still a bit white with shock but colour was draining back into his face with laughter; Ron looked quite amused; even Hermoine cracked a grin. Anyone who told off a Slytherin, especially someone like Pansy Parkinson, deserved a lot of respect and admiration, from the Gryffindors, particularly.

There was appreciative sniggering going on all around the Hall, though Harry was the first to actually speak to her.

"I thought you said you were going to smack her? Oh.. that didn't come out right at all."

Cali tipped her head back, laughing. "Ahh, remember when I said that we didn't need words?"

Harry, along with everyone else listening, nodded vigorously.

"Well, I think that's all she could handle."

And at that, laughter resumed. Pansy looked outraged and humiliated at the same time. A short moment later, she left, followed closely by her group, who, everyone could tell, was secretly laughing.

No one had ever told off Pansy Parkinson, much less criticized her.

Cali was nearly drowning in cheers, pats on the back and head, and overall noise. The professors didn't even seem to want to do anything about the situation. She looked over at the Slytherin table, where there was a sizable gap, and winked at Draco, who'd looked up at the exact moment. He gave her a half-smile.

For the rest of breakfast, which, unfortunately, wasn't for very long, Cali was all smiles. When it was over, however, she pulled out her schedule.

"Gryffindor - Fifth Year," she read. "Potions. With.. Slytherins!"

"You make it sound like that's a good thing," Harry said darkly.

"What?" Hermoine looked up from a book. "Oh, don't tell me, we have Potions with the Slytherins," she guessed.

Ron nodded. "Again."

Cali couldn't help laughing a little. They all looked so miserable.

Then it was time to leave. Cali stood up, looking around for Draco, but decided that it wasn't a completely good idea to carry out in front of all the Slytherins surrounding him. She sighed inwardly.

When she arrived back down in the Potions dungeon, across from Snape's office where she and Draco had been yesterday, she nearly bumped into the guys Draco had introduced to her as Crabbe and Goyle on the train.

She decided on a friendly wave. They just stared. Either they were utterly surprised that a girl would ever approach them, or they were just really, really dumb. 'Probably both,' Cali thought.

Then they turned around, and she did so too, blinding the two guys with the glare off her hair for a moment.

"Crabbe, Goyle, where _have_ you been?" Draco demanded, strolling up behind them all. "I suppose you were too busy following Cali here around, were you?"

"Er, sorry, Draco," grunted Goyle. Crabbe bobbed his head in agreement.

Draco just shrugged. "Hey, Cali. Oh, bugger, here comes Pansy and her gang. She won't be happy seeing us talking."

"Wait," Cali interrupted, but was interrupted herself as Draco worded her incomplete thoughts.

"Then again, since it'll annoy her.. HEYYY, CALI!" he said loudly as Pansy, Millicent, and Blaise Zabini strode up to the Potions dungeon.

"Hi, Draco," Cali said, glancing sweetly at each of the Slytherin girls in turn. "Enjoy breakfast?"

"Very much so," he replied, sneering at the girls. "It was certainly refreshing, don't you agree, Pansy?"

Pansy face changed from anger, to shock, and back to anger as she hmped and stomped into the classroom.

Unfortunately, Professor Snape emerged from his office right then, so they were forced to put the fun on pause.

They took their time getting to their seats, Cali being pretty confident that Snape wouldn't yell at her, based on his actions earlier on, and Draco knowing for a fact that Snape wouldn't punish him if he skipped class altogether.

They walked down the aisle (A/N: wedding march plays.. lol ;) between the Gryffindor and Slytherin sides of the room. Cali went over and sat on the edge of the Gryffindor side, next to Ron. Draco sat across the aisle from her, next to Crabbe. They exchanged small smiles, as everyone else, even Snape, watched with interest.

Snape barked at them to listen up, and everyone snapped to attention. "Today we will be partnering up and conjuring up Truth Potions."

A couple pairs of eyebrows shot up.

"NOT Veritaserum," Snape said shortly, glaring at Harry, especially. "This is a much milder potion. The effects will only last about forty-five seconds. And in those forty-five seconds, you will have the chance to ask your partner a few questions as to check if you have succeeded. Please refrain from asking horribly personal questions," Snape's lip was curling. "Do resist the temptation."

"A rule meant to be broken," Cali muttered under her breath to Ron.

Ron cracked a smile. Despite him being annoyed about her and Draco, the morning's events had turned him around. Someone to have done that couldn't be all bad.

"Now, here are your partners." Snape started reading off a parchment as hopeful eyes darted around the room.

"Potter and Crabbe. Granger and Bulstrode. Weasley and Goyle. Zabini and Parkinson..."

"What does Snape have against me?!" Ron muttered, clearly exasperated.

"You're a Gryffindor?" Cali replied.

"-and.. Malfoy and Drache."

Ron's eyebrows shot up. "He doesn't seem to hate _you_."

Cali shrugged, though Ron could tell she was obviously smiling. "I'm just... special."

Ron murmured irritably as he got up to find Goyle. "Good luck, Ron," Cali said, almost pitying him. She didn't see anything wrong about Goyle, besides that he seemed a bit clueless. But then again, she wouldn't want to work with someone she hated, either, like say, Pansy Parkinson.

Cali was so busy watching people getting up, grumbling and/or snickering, that she didn't notice who had crossed the aisle and was standing over her. With her powers, she could faintly sense him, his aura (which, she noted, matched the Slytherin colours exactly.. green, silver, and black). But it wasn't a very strong sense, for she didn't know anyone at Hogwarts well enough yet. She turned around, looked up, and smiled brightly. "Oh, hi, Draco."

--**Cali's POV**--

"Oh, hi, Draco," I said. Oh, gosh, he looks so sleek, so put together.. so totally hot. grin And I don't think he's even trying to, completely.

"Hallo, Cali."

And, oh, I still love that accent! Especially how he says my name..

I pull out Ron's chair and he sits down. Snape turned around.. I think he's writing down ingredients or something, so I do believe we're allowed to talk a bit.

I look at him, to see that he's staring right back at me. Quickly, I break the gaze though I can tell he hasn't.

Oh, geez, I can't think of anything to say! This is the guy I spent the night with on a couch. Why can't I think of something, anything? This is ridiculous.

"So, uh.." I stutter. "What're you planning to ask me?"

From the look on Draco's face, it was obvious that he hadn't Snape's words on personal questions. That, or he had chosen to disregard them. I'll assume the latter.

I smile, though nervously. I can feel that Draco isn't nervous at all. That, or he's doing a lot better of a job hiding it.

He shrugs. "Dunno yet."

Then he asks me the same question, with a load more confidence.

I stop. Though he is the one I know the most, I realize that there are so many thing I don't know about him. But this seems hardly the time to find out...

--**Draco's POV**--

Random thought: Damn, how does she manage to look so cute in her school robes? I know I can.. but she's the only other one who manages it. I mean, take Pansy for example...

"So," I said, with the usual drawl, and pulling out a random question. "What colour underwear are you wearing?"

Her eyes widen, and she blushes indignantly. "Draco Malfoy!"

"Yes?" I can tell she's covering up a laugh.

"I'm NOT telling you that!"

"Well, then, since you won't tell me, I'll just force it out of you with the potion." I smirk.

I wonder, though.. what else could I ask her? There's so much I don't know.. pause I think I'll just stick to useless questions.

Oh, Snape's turned around. It's time to get started.. smirk

--**3rd person**--

"You will need to assemble these ingredients in a cauldron. Be sure to use the dried skin of a double-horned toad, and not that of a single-horned toad," Snape said, then sat down into his chair.

The class bustled to life. Even students paired with someone he or she detested were smiling; the prospect of potentially finding out their enemies' secrets was quite pleasing.

Even Ron, who was cheerfully tipping a liquid into Goyle's cauldron, was looking devilish, while Goyle just looked on, confused as usual.

There was one word hanging around in the air: blackmail.

Light snickering could be heard as the slowly forming potions bubbled and gave off strange smelling steam.

"Extract of boysenberry, dried skin of a horned toad.." Cali read off the board, as Draco handed her a vial of bright purple liquid and she tipped a few drops of it into her cauldron.

Then Cali gingerly picked up a slab of horrible smelling skin. She was about to drop it in, when Hermoine, who apparently, had been watching them suspiciously out of the corner of her vision, turned to them and said, "Didn't you hear anything Snape said?"

"No," Draco and Cali answered together, looking bewildered.

Hermoine sighed exasperatedly. "For your information," she said, sticking her nose up in disgust, "it's the skin of a DOUBLE-horned toad."

"Oh," they said together again.

"What the hell is the difference?" Draco said wondrously.

"Well," Hermoine replied in her sounds-like-she-swallowed-a-textbook voice, "the molecular structure of a double-horned toad, otherwise known-"

"Okay. There is a difference." Cali cut her off quickly. "Then.. Draco, you put it in, I refuse to touch it."

"You touched the skin of a SINGLE-horned toad," he pointed out, glancing warily at Hermoine.

"Right, but it felt almost worse than it smells, and I don't suppose this version's much better."

Draco scowled and hastily dropped in the correct ingredient. "Ech, you're right. It feels like Granger's hair."

"You touched her hair?" Cali couldn't help asking.

"Ahh, nevermind that."

A minute later, most the class had their Truth Potions ready, including Draco and Cali.

"There." Cali stirred it once more, then looked up, along with the rest of the class, to Professor Snape.

"Now, those who are ready, come up here with your Potion, one at a time, and we will see just how well your Potion works," Snape instructed.

Immediately, Hermoine got up, wanting to be first. Millicent trudged up after her, annoyed, but laughing maliciously at the questions she had planned, probably.

"You first, Granger," Snape said, smirking evilly.

When Hermoine and Millicent returned, Hermoine was extremely outraged, but a load more humiliated. Millicent looked very smug, since Hermoine could only manage dumb questions from being so embarrassed.

Draco snickered. "Hey, Cali, let's go. I want to how well our potion works."

Cali got up and they got in line behind Harry and Crabbe, who were trying out their potion.

"What's your.. uh.. favourite colour?" Crabbe asked, for lack of better questions, or rather, lack of brains at all. Seconds later, the Potions wore off and it was Draco and Cali's turn.

"You go first," Cali told Draco, looking a bit perplexed as Snape poured a ladle-full of their Truth Potion into a tumbler.

"No, you." Draco said, handing the cup to her.

"Oh, fine." Cali looked uneasily at the Potion and gulped it all down, trying not to taste it. Her throat tingled as she took a shaky breath. "Well?"

Draco was looking quite mischievous. "Well, I promised you this: what colour underwear are you wearing?"

Her eyes widened and she heard herself say "leopard print".

"What type is it?"

"A thong," Cali sputtered, totally and completely mortified.

Draco smirked. "Yum. Now.. what do you think of Potter?"

"Harry?"

"Yes."

"He's nice, surprisingly modest, he's not bad looking... Draco..." she said warningly.

"Sounds like you like him."

"No! Not that way!"

"So.. what about Granger?"

"She's kind of a bitch. _Draco_!"

Draco doubled over, laughing out loud. Even Snape look amused. In fact, he didn't look at all compelled to stop Draco's questions.

A sudden idea occurred to him. "On a scale from one to ten, one being the least, how much do you like the cutest guy here in your opinion, of course?"

It surprised Cali how Draco could fit that much so perfectly into one sentence. "It's you, and out of ten, nine."

"Only nine? I'm hurt."

It was Cali's turn to laugh.

"What's your favourite thing about him, er, me? Just pick one."

Cali held back a giggle as she said, "You're dead sexy."

Draco smirked. "Thank you. Um.. which House would you be in, if you had picked yourself?"

"Slytherin."

Both Draco and Snape raised one eyebrow each.

"Oh, damn, we're almost out of time. Er.. one more question. What would you do if you were stuck in a dimly lit, cramped closet with, say, Weasley?"

"_DRACO_!" Fortunately for Cali, the Potion wore off just then. Draco pouted.

"Professor, can we force-feed Cali more Potion?" he asked hopefully.

"Sorry, Mister Malfoy, but we don't have the time for that... today. It's your turn," Snape said, though he wouldn't have minded if they had. But he was a professor, after all.

Draco admitted, to himself of course, that he was a bit tense about the look on Cali's face. But, they were about to waste about half his time laughing.

"My turn to ask," Cali sang happily as Draco took a swig from another tumbler. As soon the Potion appeared to have settled in, Cali got an idea of her own. She smirked. "Here's one for you. Boxers or briefs?"

Draco turned white, then purple before answering, smirking, "Boxers."

Cali giggled incessantly, as Snape turned away. He had a feeling that he could do without hearing this questioning.

After regaining sanity, she asked, confirming Snape's suspicions, "What colour are they?"

"Green.. with yellow dragons." Unlike Cali, Draco took amusement in his answers.

Another giggling fit. Cali then heard giggling other than hers, and she turned around, to face Pansy Parkinson, who'd almost dropped her cauldron on Blaise's foot in shock of what Draco had said so far. Cali glared. Pansy shrugged. Then, she got a sudden idea. Hoping it would work, she said, pronouncing each word extra-clearly so there would no mistake, "Cute. Speaking of which, who do you think is the cutest girl at this school, and what do you rate her?"

"You, of course. I rate you a nine."

Cali smirked triumphantly at Pansy. She looked over and Draco, smiling widely and he winked at her. Then the Potion wore off.

"Top marks, Malfoy and Drache," Snape announced, then turned to Pansy and Blaise.

"Thanks, Draco. I think that'll keep Pansy off our backs."

"Hey, it's the truth," he said, shrugging, but she could tell he was holding back a smile.

Then they sat back down, and Draco furiously scribbled down the ingredients on a piece of parchment.

"Oh, gosh, what're you doing that for?" Cali asked.

"I might need it later," he answered quickly, muttering to himself.

Cali shrugged. "This can't be good."

Draco smirked and finished off his list with a whirl of his quill. He folded it up and pocketed it. "There."

"Hey," Cali said, pulling out her schedule. "What class do you have next?" She scanned her own schedule and pouted.

"Herbology," Draco replied. "With Ravenclaws. You?"

"Transfiguration. With Hufflepuffs."

"Damn it," Draco said. "I figured that we could turn McGonagall into a slug and dash salt on her."

Cali laughed. "Interesting, but I'd hate to find out how long we'd have detention."

"Good point."

There was a pause. Thankfully, Snape announced the class was dismissed before things got awkward.

"Well, see you, Draco," Cali said, as they parted, Cali following the Gryffindors to the Transfiguration classroom, and Draco on his way to the greenhouses.

Draco waved, and watched as she strode up the stairs.

-----

OH MY GOSH!! I JUST HEARD THAT HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX IS COMING OUT JUNE 21ST!!!!!!!!! AIEEEEEEK!

deep breath.

Hehe. I'll calm down (eventually, I suppose). Please review!!!!!

(while I 'obsess like a rabid fangirl with Sunny. Hahahaha)

Angelee


	4. Telepathic Bonds

One (Hot) Soul

Chapter Four: Telepathic Bonds

I forgot about this for the first three chapters, so here it is!!:

DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter plot and characters do not belong to me in any way but to the awesome author, J.K. Rowling!! Also, I don't own the lyrics or any of the song(s) used, for that. I got all the songs off the CD The Spirit Room by Michelle Branch. But I do own Cali, my very own original character.

----- 

All through Transfiguration, Cali played the happenings of Potions class over and over in her head.

--**Flashback**--

"On a scale from one to ten, one being the least, how much do you like the cutest guy here in your opinion, of course?"

It surprised Cali how Draco could fit that much so perfectly into one sentence. "It's you, and out of ten, nine."

"Only nine? I'm hurt."

It was Cali's turn to laugh.

"What's your favourite thing about him, er, me? Just pick one."

Cali held back a giggle as she said, "You're dead sexy."

--**end flashback**--

Cali giggled and as a result of her loss of concentration, she turned her quill into a bracelet instead of a necklace. McGonagall gave her a sharp glare, and Harry leaned over.

"What the heck are you doing?" he whispered, when McGonagall turned her back.

She was about to risk an answer when she got a better idea.

'Nothing,' she said, answering telepathically, causing Harry to jump in his seat. Fortunately, McGonagall missed this one. 'Sorry,' Cali apologized, with a hint of amusement.

'It's okay. WAIT.. am I talking to you through my mind?!'

Cali suppressed a laugh. 'Yeah, I can open a line between me and one other person.'

'Wicked!'

Cali grinned.

'So what were you laughing up a storm about?'

'I was laughing that loud?'

'No.'

'Hmph. Well, I was just thinking about what happened in Potions.'

'What happened in Potions? I mean what was so funny? Besides Crabbe's face, but ANYWAYS.'

Cali proceeded to tell him of what all happened, though she kept their answers to herself. Harry then told her of the dull questioning of Crabbe.

'Must've been way easy to ask Crabbe anything. I mean.. he's so clueless!'

'Yeah, if Snape hadn't been glaring at me the entire time. It's really very unsettling.'

Cali turned her laugh into a cough. For the rest of Transfiguration, the two of them were officially distracted, as that Cali left the mind telepathy connection open.

It was always that Harry would ask her for help, but they would end up blabbing about something else. At the end of class, when McGonagall came around to check up on their work, Cali did a bit of cheating and turned both their quills into exquisite necklaces via mind control.

Though it was quite an advantage to be able to perform acts of magic with her mind, Cali felt guilty for doing so. Back at home, if she couldn't get a spell down, she would just slip by and use her mind. The only thing she couldn't avoid, however, was Potion-making, though with Snape's lack of hating her, it wasn't much of a problem.

Cali's mind was anywhere but on task. She just couldn't stop feeling guilty (she had gotten both her and Harry top marks), not to mention, she was itching to see Draco again. She could not tell exactly what was between him and her, and how exactly he felt about her. She definitely did not wasn't to over (or under) assume and look like a complete idiot.

Yet, with the lack of Draco, she got to know the Gryffindors a lot more. She held mind conversations with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.

She saw that they were all wonderful people, really, and yes, she even came to like Hermoine.

Hermoine had said, 'I know I haven't all nice to you... it was mostly because I wasn't sure what to make of you.' Cali must've looked a good bit confused, only with a vague feeling knowing what Hermoine meant.

'Well,' she had explained, sounding so straightforward, Cali admired it. 'On the train, I naturally gave the benefit of the doubt. You seemed nice enough, and I knew exactly how it felt to be cut off from the wizarding world. I could relate, you know? But as soon as Malfoy showed up, and you seemed to like him, I started having doubts.'

Cali nodded. It was a gift, inherited from her mother, to understand people.

'So you see... er.. you know what I mean?'

'Totally. I get you, Hermoine.' Cali agreed that if they were in each other's places, she would DEFINITELY have been suspicious of Hermoine if she taken liking to a four-year enemy.

By Charms, after warm conversations with the Gryffindors, she felt as if she'd been there with them since their first year. She even considered Hermoine a friend. Yes, she was still a walking dictionary, no joke about that matter, but after she got used to it, it was more amusing than annoying.

In fact, she was so caught up with continuing her earlier talk with Ron that she didn't notice the Slytherins trickling into the room. Most importantly, Draco.

"I was wondering when I'd see you again," he drawled with a half-smile.

Cali smiled happily. Her life seemed to be going great. She was a witch, a pure-blood, at that. She had three great friends, not to mention the attention of the hot Slytherin bad-boy.

Though Charms, she held a telepathic conversation with Draco. Actually, it consisted mainly of Draco making snide comments about what Professor Flitwick was saying, and Cali smothering her laughs. For this is the stage where nearly everything teachers say sounds at least slightly wrong. Such as:

"For the mastering of this Charm, we will get into threesomes..."

'Oh, gosh, I never knew Flitwick had views like THIS...'

'Surprises, surprises,' Cali replied, sighing.

Then:

"Now don't push each other too hard. All it takes is a little bit of patience..."

'Next thing you know, he's going to make us tap dance half naked in front of McGonagall after hours to demonstrate the Invisibility Charm.'

'I think he'd consider that 'pushing each other too hard though.''

Draco snorted. 'Oh, don't worry 'bout it, Cali, I'll go easy on you. But you're going to have to contain yourself. I happen to have some serious charm.' He winked at her.

'Draco!' she blushed indignantly, but played along. 'We're in SCHOOL,' she chided.

'I never knew you had any regards toward school rules.'

'Good point.' Cali grinned. Then she had a sudden thought. She screamed loudly, in her and Draco's minds, at the mental picture forming in her head.

Draco winced. 'Ow.' Some Slytherins were starting to look at him funny, though all he had to do was glare back at them. They quickly reverted their stares somewhere else. Then he shifted his glare to Cali, instinctively rubbing his ears. 'What the HELL are you screeching about?! We haven't even started!!'

Cali face-faulted, flushing even more red in the midst of internal laughter. 'Sorry, I had a thought!'

'A disturbing one might I assume? And why didn't I hear it?'

'I'm the telepath here. But anyways,' she giggled, 'Harry, Ron, and Hermoine - the perfect threesome.' She dissolved into another fit of giggles. Though they were her friends, she just couldn't help it.

Draco's eyes widened considerably. 'Well, I always thought there was something more between those three prats-"

'Hey. Those three are my friends, even though I just said that..'

'Sure. Whatever. But two problems: one, I would have to be involved in 'the perfect threesome' and two, that's just plain wrong. DO control your hormones.'

Cali laughed even louder.

--**Dinner; Great Hall**--

Everyone at the Gryffindor table was laughing heartily at a joke Fred and George had just told, relieved to be done with the first day of classes. In fact, all the tables, including the staff table, were filled with cheerful faces, even the Slytherins, who looked as cheerful as Slytherins do.

Cali had just met Ginny, and they were talking, concentrated, about 'girl stuff.'

"So, I heard from Ron that you slept with Malfoy. Did you really?!"

Cali was astounded. "NO! I mean, yeah, I spent the night with him-"

"Wow."

"But.. nothing like that happened, heavens, no."

Ginny sighed. "I was about to seriously freak out."

"Why? Do.. you like him?"

"He's incredibly hot."

Cali grinned. "Got that right."

Ginny gasped. "DID YOU HEAR ME SAY THAT OUT LOUD?!?"

"Sure did."

"Oh, dear.."

"It's okay," Cali reassured her. "There's no point denying it.. and oh, I won't tell Ron."

"Phew. Thanks."

McGonagall stopped conversation at the staff table and tapped her glass. Dumbledore stood up and the students immediately quieted.

"I have an announcement. First off, I see we have all made it through day one." He smiled and winked. "Now, Quidditch is starting up very soon. The first match will be in four days, between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Best of luck to both teams." He sat back down and conversation started again.

"Quidditch.. remind me again how that's played?" Cali said to Ron, who was sitting next to her. Desperate to find out as much as possible about the wizarding world, she had crammed in a ridiculous amount of reading, resulting in remembering only bits and pieces of everything.

"Well, I think I'll turn that topic over to Harry. He's on the House team, after all," Ron gestured to Harry, who nodded.

"There are four balls used in Quidditch. The Quaffle, the one used for scoring points; two Bludgers, that fly around by themselves, trying to knock players off their brooms; and a Golden Snitch, which the Seeker must catch to end the game."

Cali nodded, piecing together what she knew and what she was being told.

He continued. "Each House has a team. There are seven players on each team. The Keeper is basically the goalie," he explained, using Muggle terms. "Then they're three Chasers, who pass the Quaffle to each other and score, or try to. Two Beaters, well, beat the Bludgers away from their team members. And the Seeker. That's me."

"Oh, I see. So.. who else do I know plays on a House team?" Cali asked curiously.

"Well, Fred and George are the Beaters. And, er, Malfoy's the Slytherin Seeker."

"Oh.. is he really.." Cali said, her eyes drifting on over to we-know- where. The Slytherin table.

"We've lost Cali," Ginny announced, sighing. Ron glared at them both. Hermoine rolled her eyes.

The rest of the dinner feast was filled, and nearly bursting with laughter, though Cali didn't take part in most of it. She and Draco were planning out a meeting.. one that would take place after hours, after everyone had fallen asleep, and hopefully, after even Snape stopped patrolling the hallways.

'Midnight?'

'Gotcha.'

Cali got up, and followed her fellow Gryffindors out the double doors. It wasn't hard to spot Draco in a crowd, she realized quickly. All she had to do was look for silvery-blonde hair that wasn't hers. That, or she could use telepathy. 'It all works out. Perfect.'

She had wanted to talk to Draco about just why he wanted to see her after hours, though, she thought, that was very romantic. So she told the Gryffindors that she forgot something in a classroom, and that she'd meet them back in the Tower later.

She looked around for Draco, and not seeing him, walked along slowly, not wanting to hold up the packed hallway. When the crowd parted at the stairways, she had the strangest feeling that she was being followed. Closely followed. She didn't recognize the auras of the four boys following her. 'Boys.. they're boys. Oh, my gosh.' Cali suddenly stiffened, remembering an event about a month before she received her letter. It wasn't a pleasant memory.

Then she stopped in a corner. Slowly, she turned around. There, cornering her, and with evil grins on their faces, were four unfamiliar boys.

"Hi, Miss California," one of them spoke up.

"Going to bed so soon?" another one, to the right of the first speaker, asked.

"Er, well, I was waiting for.." Cali trailed off, looking fearfully at them. Then she did the first thing that came to mind. 'DRACO!!' she screamed through the still open connection.

Just exiting the Great Hall, Draco whirled around, searching for Cali through the pain of his head.

'Cali?'

'Draco, help, I'm-!" she was cut off.

"Oh, my gosh, what has she done now?" he muttered, and using their mind connection, he started off in her direction. All he saw were a group of Ravenclaw sixth years standing around a corner. He stared, confused, for a moment. He had felt her, stronger than ever, felt her needing anyone, but hoping it would be him.

Then realization struck. As if confirming his suspicions, a flash of bright blonde hair whipped around one of the guys' side, followed by a muffled squeak.

"YOU FUCKIN DIRTY GIT!" Draco yelled, pulling the guy off Cali. He then delivered a hard blow to his jaw. Much to his surprise, the Ravenclaw kicked him hard in the shin and in the stomach. Draco glared.

Then, they engaged in a ferocious battle, though it was quite obvious the Ravenclaw couldn't come close to putting up a descent battle against Draco.

Nonetheless, Draco was getting fed up. "_Impedimenta_!" He rolled his eyes as the Ravenclaw stopped short. "Now.. _petrificus totalus_!" The Ravenclaw dropped to the ground. Two of the other guys sidled away, seeing the 'Prince of Slytherins' in a rage. The last one stayed, looking both defiant and scared for his life.

"Well, what are you still here for?" Draco demanded, pushing Cali behind him.

"Um, er, I think, you know what, I think I left a book in the Great Hall. I- I'll go get it." He dashed off, knocking over a couple of Hufflepuffs in the process.

Draco glared, disgusted as the boy sped off. Then he turned around to face a shaking Cali. She was crying. "Dumb question, Cali, but are you okay?"

"I-I.." she stuttered through tears.

Without hesitation this time, he wrapped his arms around her, and she cried into his robes. "Cali, don't cry. It's over. They're gone.. and I'm here."

Her sobs quieted slightly. Him being there did make it better, a lot better. She was so utterly grateful. And at this, she cried even harder.

Draco stared. "Oh gosh. Now come on.. let's get you back to Gryffindor Tower." He tried to guide up her to a staircase but nearly stumbled. "Ow," he stated, remembering the Ravenclaw. His eyes darkened to a stone gray with extreme irritation at his shin, which was already turning a shadowy purple-blue colour. He felt unnaturally out of breath, too, from the blow to his stomach.

Cali noticed it, too. "Draco," she said gently, still sniffling, "scratch that. You should go to the hospital wing. I'm not physically hurt. You are."

He tried not to wince in pain. "But Cali.." he said, in nearly a whine, "it's just a stupid bruise.. from a stupid Ravenclaw."

Cali smiled weakly. "And you're going to feel awfully stupid tomorrow with that er, stupid bruise."

"Hm.. good point. But.. what about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I have you.. remember?"

"Another good point."

So Cali followed Draco up to the hospital wing, purposely leaving the Ravenclaw, where they spun up a strange story about how Draco hit his foot on Cali's star formation replica for Divination. ('Though,' Cali thought, 'what are the chances the er, non-existing replica would survive if Draco tripped on it so hard, or rather, what are the chances Draco would trip in the first place?')

Cali stayed overnight in the hospital wing with Draco, though he said it'd be better for her to get some rest. "_Accio_!" she Summoned her pajamas, and on second thought, her CD player.

Draco eyed it for a moment. "What's that?"

"A CD player. A Muggle item."

"Oh. A Muggle item, eh?" Draco sat up, and made no effort to hold back a cough. "So what's it do?"

"Well, it plays CDs," Cali said, for lack of a better explanation. She opened the cover and took out a round, shiny disc with a hole in the middle. "This is a CD. It has recorded music on it."

"Oh," Draco said again. This Muggle item looked as if it had actual use.

Cali put the earphones on as Draco watched curiously, though he was distracted for a moment as he drank down a cup of Potion Madam Pomfrey handed him.

Draco watched as Cali sang softly along with the music. Not to his surprise, the song was completely unfamiliar to him. Then she stopped singing and giggled.

"What now?"

"Oh, I just realized how these lyrics speak my soul, as to say."

"Um, sure.."

Cali giggled again, then resumed singing. He hadn't heard many people sing, not up close like this, anyway. Cali had a very nice voice, he noticed appreciatively. Soon, he began drifting off to the sound of her singing.

"You give me something to sleep to and all I know is you give me something to dream to when I'm all alone and blue. Don't leave me now, don't leave me now..."

'Something to sleep to, eh?' he thought, and closed his eyes.

'Sweet dreams,' she answered. She had apparently forgotten to close off the mind connection.

Draco gave a small, genuine smile and fell to sleep.

Three hours later, it was completely dark except for the moonlight peeking in through the windows. Draco groggily opened his eyes and saw that Cali was sitting in the same chair she had been for three hours now. She was so pale, in her pajamas now, and the silver-blonde hair, now a gently glowing white, fell around her, making her truly look like an angel.

"Cali, what are you doing? It's somewhat unnerving to wake up to… an angel."

Cali smiled gently, her eyes shining, looking more and more heavenly. "Shh, go back to sleep."

Draco yawned hugely. She reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite remember. "Right then. You don't have your jacket again. Are you cold?"

Cali looked embarrassed. "A little," she admitted.

Then, making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere in sight, he snuck her into bed next to him.

And for the second out of two nights, they fell asleep together.

**Morning; Great Hall**

Draco had successfully healed over night. There was much questioning about Terry Boot and how the heck he had ended up, bruised and Petrified next to the stairs. No one who had witnessed the happening dared to tell, in fear of Draco delivering the same fate.

Cali took a risk and was sitting at the Slytherin table between Draco and Crabbe. She was definitely getting some weird looks. Sometimes students would sit with friends from different Houses, but never did Slytherin and Gryffindor mix at meals. Never.

Draco and Cali were attempting to carry on warm conversation, even trying to include other Slytherins. Yet, not to their surprise, they only responded with icy glares, or an occasional grunt to stay on Draco's good side.

It ended up with Cali giving Draco a kiss on the cheek, Draco fighting down a blush, then Cali standing up, sighing exasperatedly. "Gosh. Draco, I think I should just go back to the Gryffindor table. See you in Potions."

"Cali, no," Draco protested but she had made up her mind. She strode off across the room, alarming several students, and dropped into a seat next to Ginny.

"What's with you guys?!" Draco demanded, rounding in on the Slytherins.

"What's with you? You're a Slytherin, she's a Gryffindor, in case you haven't taken the time to look below her face," a seventh year said dryly.

Draco fixed the famous Malfoy death glare on him. "I believe you're the one who hasn't looked past her face. I never thought I'd be saying this but frankly, I don't give SHIT that she's a Gryffindor."

Then he got up, stalked over to the Gryffindor table, scaring the students that hadn't been scared by Cali, and stood over her. "Come on," he said, and without waiting for a reaction he pulled her up and dragged her out of the Great Hall.

"What the hell? You could've at least said, 'we need to talk.' Damn you." Cali yanked her hands out of his.

Draco's expression barely changed. "Okay then, we need to talk. Good enough?"

Cali sighed. "Draco, I'm sorry. It's just.. all this stupid rivalry crap is just so..." she made a disgusted sound, for lack of justifying words.

"I know. Boy, do I know. But listen.." his expression was completely different now. Any trace of anger was replaced with seriousness. He took her hands again. "Back there, with that lot, I told them that.." - he restated his exact words - "I don't give shit if you're a Gryffindor."

Cali's eyes widened. "Seriously, Malfoy."

Draco winced. Her calling him by his last name stung a little. "I mean it. I know that two days ago, I would have MUCH preferred for you to be in Slytherin. But now... I think it's really very interesting. It only makes love stronger. ...Oh, damn, I sound like a lame Hufflepuff."

"No, you don't," Cali said firmly. "You're absolutely right. Nothing they say will change it."

Draco nodded. "Now.. I don't really fancy going back in there, do you?"

"No, I most certainly don't," Cali agreed. "Hey.. now that I've been in the Slytherin common room.. you wanna come up to Gryffindor's?"

Draco raised an eyebrow, unable to hide his contempt. "Could be interesting. Can I jack up Granger's stuff?"

"No," Cali said stubbornly, as the two of them descended upon the staircase.

Starting to feel a hint of angst? shivers By the way, I'm moving the rating up for swearing and other events coming up in later chapters. You'll see...

I actually wrote out a detailed plot summary, mainly because I was so confused. I had a bunch of events but I realized that I had no idea what the exact order they would go in. So, after about half an hour, I planned out the whole story! So it's all a matter of writing it all out and well, elaborating. )

Thanks BUNCHES to "strawberries are mine" (no they're NOT, Irene, they're MINE! D), aznqtpai, Keeper of the Moon, and all other previous reviewers!! 14 reviews probably doesn't sound like much to some people, but to me, it's completely WONDERFUL. )

pLeAsE R/R!

Angelee


	5. A Great Silver Pig

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Five: A Great Silver Pig

By Angelee

I never thought of this before but many thanks to Missy (aznqtpai), Sunny, and/or anyone else I've had to ask little questions concerning Harry Potter details. A lot of times, it occurs to me that I'm not completely sure about one little detail and because I don't want my fic to have inaccurate info, I ask around. Thanks for the help!

Aww!! Draco got himself hurt for Cali? How sweet! So the relationship is blossoming.. wheee But, may I warn you, there's going to be some angst. What's a story like this without angst? Haha. And I said so in the summary.. so get ready.

Haha and special recognition to Irene for a bit of editing. Hehe. Being that she's here, while I'm writing it, she's pretty much read the whole chapter already. Lucky her, haha.

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Gossip - that was all that was heard in the halls, in the common rooms, even in classrooms. There was much hustle-bustle about Draco telling off his own fellow Slytherins in defence for a Gryffindor. Everyone now knew about Draco beating up Terry Boot, and leaving him, Petrified, in the halls. Now, whenever Draco and/or Cali passed a Ravenclaw, they would be greeted with a stare.

It had been like this for three days.

"See you on the field, then," Cali said, as Draco left the Great Hall. It was the day of the first Quidditch match.

Draco was faintly surprised that the first match hadn't been a classic Gryffindor-Slytherin match to start the season with tension. But, he realized with twisted irony, as if someone had known what was going to happen, they would be against Ravenclaw.

Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker glared sharply at him when they'd shot into the air. Draco just grinned lazily, and she flew away, highly irritated. Draco shrugged and concentrated as the whistle blew. The game had begun.

For the first moments, there was no sign of the Golden Snitch. Draco darted around the field, dodging Bludgers, doing a couple of flying tricks, and annoying Cho. She would always just glare and speed away, as if she had seen the Snitch.

Draco just ignored her. He knew the look of every Seeker, maybe with the exception of Harry, when they'd spotted the Snitch.

"And Slytherin puts in another goal! 10 more points for Slytherin," Lee Jordan announced, sounding none too pleased. Draco smirked at Cho, who looked outraged.

He then looked around the crowd. It was quite a satisfactory, familiar feeling being in the air. He looked over to the Slytherin section, which was currently cheering wildly. Smirking, he scanned across the Hufflepuff section, looking disappointed, the irritated Ravenclaws, and finally the Gryffindors.

There was those airheads, Lavender and Parvati, Granger, Potter, Weasley, Ginny, who he'd always thought wasn' rather cute for a Weasley, and there was Cali. Beautiful, precious Cali. She was dressed in black school robes, of course, and a red and yellow scarf, which, Draco noted, clashed her hair horribly. She must've thought so, too, for she was glancing wistfully at the Slytherin scarves. She saw him looking at her and waved happily.

He gave her a half-smile but was quickly shaken from his temporary break. There was a sudden gasp from the crowd. He glanced instinctively at Cho, who now had that look in her eyes. She had seen the Snitch.

Draco cursed for not paying more attention. They both knew that in terms of skills as Seeker, Draco had the upper hand. Draco looked wildly, but carefully around and saw a flash of gold near a Ravenclaw goal post.

He quickly zoomed over, looking like nothing but a green blur, arching over the field. Then, thinking quickly, he smirked at her. In effort to avoid him, she fatefully flew away, missing the Snitch. And, quite embarrassedly, she crashed right into a Bludger. She screeched and plummeted through the air, trying to regain control. There were frightened gasps all around.

Draco snickered maliciously. He was so caught up in bemusement of Cho's bad luck that he came across the same fate.

Cali watched in horror as a Bludger slammed into the back of Draco's broom, pitching him off. There was another gasp of terror from the stands. Cali screeched, "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!!" She felt, annoyed, as if she were in a movie.

"Hey, you're the telepath," Ron said, his eyes glinting spitefully as he watched Draco's fall.

"RON!" she screeched. Then her eyes lit up. "I AM a telepath."

"Very good, Cali," Ron said, then blinked, seeing that Cali was no longer seated next to him.

Cali quickly teleported to the field. Through telekinesis, she could move objects around, but she'd never once tried to stop a person from falling, several meters in the air.

"Oh, dear," she said.

Teachers and students were standing up, craning their necks to see. Lee Jordan had stopped commentating.

"Oh, heck, it's worth a try!" she figured. She called upon every ounce of strength she possessed and willed Draco to stop falling, to stop from hitting the ground.

After awhile, as her powers concentrated stronger, Draco actually began to slow his falling. His eyes were wide with panic.

The students were now aware that it was Cali down there, attempting to potentially save his life.

Five meters from the ground, Draco's descending stopped. He was now perched in mid air. He looked down and realized for the first time that it was Cali, using her powers, to save him.

Her eyes were so blank, so empty. She looked beyond drained. Draco unbalanced in the air, then dropped the rest of the way.

Cali promptly collapsed in a heap.

**Four hours later; hospital wing**

"Is she going to be okay?" asked a familiar feminine voice.

"How's she doing?" asked another, male this time.

"When's she going to wake up?!" demanded another male voice.

"LET ME GET FREAKIN UP!" screamed another voice. This jerked Cali out of her state of half-consciousness.

"Draco?" she asked tentatively, trying to make sense of her surroundings through the throbbing pain in her head, not to mention the feeling of deep exhaustion. She fought to stay awake.

"See? She wants to see ME!" Draco's voice yelled from her left. Cali rubbed her eyes, and looked around. Draco was laying in the bed to her left, bandaged in various spots.

The memories were coming back now, but just slightly. "Hi, Draco." She smiled weakly.

"CALI!" cried several voices in front of her. She was immediately surrounded by Harry, Hermoine, Ron, and Ginny. Apparently, the first speaker had been Hermoine, followed by Harry, then Ron. Ginny had remained silent, smiling happily.

Then the Slytherin Quidditch team, which had been surrounding Draco, came and flocked Cali instead. Draco scowled.

Cali giggled. "I'm fine, I'm okay. A little tired, but I'm not hurt or anything!"

The Slytherin Quidditch team went back to Draco but Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Ginny stayed at her side.

"What exactly happened?" Cali asked. She felt exceptionally tired, though she couldn't recall any vigorous exercise.

As if reading her mind, Hermoine spoke up. "You exercised your powers a bit too much."

"Maybe more than a little," Harry added.

"And man, you have some impressive powers," Ron chimed in.

Cali stared at them, not knowing whether to laugh or look even more confused.

"I think she also fried her brain," Ginny said. "Let me tell her."

Cali smiled at the girl. "Go ahead."

"Out on the Quidditch field-"

"Oh! The Quidditch match! Who won?"

"Er, Slytherin. Though both Seekers were down, Slytherin was more than 150 points ahead of Ravenclaw, so Madam Hooch just declared it a victory for Slytherin, though not many people heard her. There WAS that whole commotion of you saving Draco and fainting dead away."

"I.. did it? I saved Draco?" Cali asked incredulously, glancing over at Draco, who flashed a huge smile.

"Sure did," Ron said regretfully. "And mind you, nearly killed yourself doing so."

"Ron," Hermoine chided. "That's no matter to joke about. But yes, Cali, you saved him from falling from his broom, but you overexerted your powers, and fainted because you used up too much energy."

"Wow." Cali was in shock. It was all coming back to her now. Looking up and seeing Draco dropping out of the sky, feeling so afraid for him, and without a second thought, bringing out her full powers hoping it would help him, hoping with all her heart that it would be enough.

And it was.

Cali sighed in relief, snapping herself out of a trance. Madam Pomfrey came in and handed her a glass of energizing potion. Gratefully, Cali took it and gulped it all down. Immediately, she felt energy drain back into her and she felt almost normal again. Then Madam Pomfrey spoke up in firm tones, "Okay, you lot. These two need rest. I can allow one person and one person ONLY to stay in here with them."

"Ginny," Draco suggested. Everyone stared at him while Ron glared ferociously. Draco smirked.

"Yeah, sure, Ginny," Cali agreed. So everyone else filed out of the room.

"So what was that all about?" Ginny demanded.

"Nothing," Draco drawled. "Felt like tipping off your brother."

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"So, Gin, how's it like having.. how many brothers do you have again?"

"Six. It can be real fun but an extreme bother at times," Ginny answered, smiling.

"I always wondered how it'd be to have so many brothers. You must have an awful lot of fun making fun of them and their girlfriends."

Ginny smiled mischievously. "I can always tell. But don't you worry, we have our share of mishaps. Oh, boy, we do."

"So it's better being an only child?" Draco spoke up. He had obviously been listening in. Not that it was easy ignoring them, considering that they were about two feet away from him and well, he was Draco Malfoy.

Ginny shrugged. "I wouldn't know."

Then it was silent. No one knew what to say. Then, Ginny, with lack of a better topic, burst out with, "So, Cali, any ideas on whom you want to go with to the Yule Ball?" Ginny, now a fourth year, could go, too, so she was thoroughly excited, though that was months away.

"The Yule Ball? When's that? Or, what's that?"

"The Yule Ball. Anyone from fourth year and up can attend. It's around Christmastime."

"Oooh," Cali said, her eyes sparkling. "Neat.. there was never anything like this in New York."

"New York? You mean.. you don't live in California?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, no, I was born there but my parents moved across the country right after."

"Oh."

Cali smiled. "I guess I forgot to tell you that."

"Yeah. Well.. I suppose with looks like yours, you could get any guy to go with you," Ginny said.

Cali blushed. "I don't know about that, but sure, I guess. Well, what about you?"

"Um, well.. there is one guy.. er," she noticed Draco staring at them, still listening in. "I'll, er, tell you later," Ginny decided. Cali nodded.

"Would that guy by any chance be me?" Draco drawled.

Ginny glared. "And what makes you think that?"

"Everything, I suppose. You know you want me."

Cali rolled her eyes as Ginny got up. "Argh, Cali, I'll talk to you later in the common room.. when SOMEONE can't hear us," she said, glaring at Draco. Ginny stormed off.

"Oh, now look what you did!" Cali wailed.

"I only told the truth!"

Another pause. "Hey, Cali, how many Weasleys does it take to change a light bulb?"

Cali was dumbfounded. "I dunno, how many?"

"A lot. It takes a whole lot of Weasleys to earn enough money for a new light bulb."

"Draco! That was mean!"

"It's the truth." Draco shrugged. "So," he turned to face her. "Who DO you want to go to the Yule Ball with?"

"Not this again. Er.. I don't know," she said innocently.

But Draco saw right through it. "Yes you do," he drawled.

"I'm not going to spell it out for you."

"Spell it out."

'Y-O-U.'

'Oh. OH. Not the mind thing again?'

Cali shrugged. 'Takes less energy?'

'Whatever. I'm about to fall asleep. I think I'd rather go to Potions than sit here doing absolutely nothing.'

'Oh, really? You would pass up a chance to miss a class?'

'Well it's quite amusing beating up on Gryffindors. I remember last year Snape made Neville Longbottom be the class demonstration and drink potion that turned him into a bright pink, furry mountain goat.'

Cali snorted. 'Bright pink? Did he really?'

'No. But it's a good idea, don't you think?'

Cali nodded. 'Sure. This is boring. I think it'd be less boring if we weren't stuck in these beds-"

'It sure would,' Draco said, grinning slyly.

'Haha. Now.. just because we're stuck here.. shouldn't mean I can't Summon something..'

Draco gave her a and-who-cares-if-we-shouldn't? look.

She pulled out her wand. "_Accio CD player_!" she spoke the first words between them for awhile. Moments later, after some distant shrieks, her CD player hurtled into the room and landed in Cali's outstretched hand.

"Here," she offered him a earphone. He took it and hooked it over his ear as he had seen her do so. She had enchanted the CD to play the songs in different orders, so it wasn't as predictable.

"I'm sinking slowly, so hurry, hold me. Your hand's all I have to keep me hanging on. Please can you tell me so I can finally see where you go when you're gone.." Cali sang. Draco smiled at the familiarity of her singing. "If you want to, I can save you, I can take you away from here. So lonely inside, you busy out there; and all you wanted was somebody who cares.. all you wanted was somebody who cares. If you need me you know I'll be there."

'Thanks for being there, Draco,' Cali said, thinking of four days ago, when Draco had beat up the Ravenclaws.

'Hey.. we're even now,' he said.

'Though you're always the one getting physically hurt,' Cali said, giggling.

**An hour later**

Draco and Cali had finally convinced Madam Pomfrey that they were in perfect condition by generally making fools of themselves by running around. In the end, Madam Pomfrey got extremely fed up with their whining (with the both of them going full force, it was quite overwhelming) and let them go.

They bounded down the stairs, deciding not to go to Potions, after all. They only had about ten minutes of the class left.

So they walked around school, enjoying the lack of glares for a change. Though, Cali reminded them, maybe the school would act differently after the morning's events.

So much for hopes. After about fifteen minutes, they nearly collided with Pansy Parkinson and her gang while turning a corner. Draco had stopped abruptly, and as a result, Cali had crashed into him.

"Whoops," he said, and she nodded and stood next to him.

Pansy merely shrugged, taking that as an apology. She regarded him coolly. "Now, we've been needing to talk to you."

"I wasn't talking to you. Don't you flatter yourself like that."

Pansy glared. Unlike Draco, she couldn't well keep her cool. "Argh. It's about the entire House of Slytherin, Drakie-baby," she said sarcastically.

"Don't," he gritted his teeth. "Call me that. You sound like an overgrown sea horse. Drakie-baby, Drakie-baby," he mocked her in a ridiculously high- pitched tone.

She nearly screamed in frustration. "Argh! Just listen here for a moment. I think you'd want to hear this," she said, trying to look important. "The entire House of Slytherin has decided that we do NOT like the idea of you being involved with a Gryffindork."

He eyed her levelly. "Don't call her a Gryffindork. That name is reserved for people like Granger and Longbottom. And when did you decide all this crap?"

"Oh, that night that you and her spent in the infirmary. Happy Birthday to you two," Pansy said disgustedly.

Cali's eyes widened but she rapidly regained her state of anger. "You must be HORRIBLY desperate to tell him something like that," Cali finally spoke, even more disgustedly.

"Actually," spoke up a voice from behind Pansy. "Gryffindor has similar feelings."

"Harry?" Cali gasped.

Harry stepped out, followed by Ron and Hermoine. "Sorry, Cali," Ron said, looking genuinely regretful at her, but triumphant towards Draco, "but on the same night, Gryffindor decided that we don't like one of us being with HIM." He gestured to Draco.

"Yeah. But we still like YOU, Cali," Hermoine added, apparently trying to be helpful.

To the surprise of everyone there, including the other students watching in the hallways, Cali whirled around, long hair raking Pansy across the face, who had conveniently placed herself a bit in front of her group. She stomped off, swearing loudly as she did.

Draco gave them one last death glare and stalked off after Cali.

"You sure we should've done that?" Hermoine asked Harry, glancing critically at Pansy.

"It's the truth," he said firmly, not knowing how much he sounded like Draco. "But then again... a mad Malfoy is never a good thing, much less with Cali on his side."

Hermoine sighed. 'Just when we were becoming friends...'

Ron, though looked unconvinced. "Sure he's mad. But what can he do about it? He's not going to convince two Houses, er, half the school anyways."

Pansy turned to them, with an air of confidence and fake authority. "I believe that it will soon be the entire school. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff always side with you Gryffindorks." And with that, her group of Slytherin girls trudged off.

After quite a bit of walking, or stomping in Cali's case, Draco realized that she was heading straight for the Slytherin Dungeons. Expertly making all the turns, as if she'd been here since first year, she paused momentarily in front of the entrance, and without even drawing in a breath, screamed the password.

'What? How..' Draco wondered. 'Ah, probably heard it from me before.'

'Or maybe I dug into your memory to find it,' Cali said darkly.

'Argh! At least TELL ME when you open up that blasted connection! I can't even keep my thoughts to my own freakin self!'

'Geez, sorry. And if you must know, I found it right before I took off back there.'

Draco sighed. 'Whatever. Just... why'd you come here? Why not the Gryffindor Tower?'

''Cause,' Cali's voice softened. 'It's easier facing your enemies than your friends sometimes.' She plopped down a couch, the same one they'd spent the night on. He took a seat next to and on second thought, pulled her against him.

Cali proceeded to tell him of how she'd established friendship with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. Though Draco despised them, he could understand how she felt.

He'd never really had any close, real friends. Crabbe and Goyle, well, they were just ridiculously easy to manipulate.

'See, friendship means a lot to me... I hate the thought of losing a friend.'

They were talking telepathically, mainly so no one could overhear, but also because it was strangely soothing to hear someone's voice in your head. Especially someone you loved.

'But you must've had loads of friends back in, er, New York.'

'I did. But most of them thought I was really weird after word of my powers got out.'

'Oh...' for once, Draco was at a loss of words. 'I'm.. I'm sorry.'

'It's okay.. not like you could do anything about it.'

'Or could I?'

Cali looked up and saw that Draco now had a mischievous glint in his eye. She raised an eyebrow, as if egging him on. He leaned over and kissed her gently.

Cali's eyes widened in surprise but didn't have time to analyze things, for Draco pulled away quickly. She looked up at him with innocent eyes but that all changed when she reached up and kissed him harder.

Draco accepted, and by the time Pansy walked in, Draco and Cali were having a full out snog session on the couch. Not that they actually noticed her, however.

Somehow they'd managed to shift positions so that Cali was lying on the couch and Draco on top of her. Cali had her arms hooked around Draco's neck and she found that his hair was even softer than it looked, as she had her fingers laced behind his head, through his locks. Draco's hands were occupied; one holding her around the waist and the other steadying himself.

Draco was moving down to her neck when Pansy shrieked, "ENOUGH already! Don't you two have at least the decency to get a room?!" Draco opened his mouth to speak. "Don't you answer that, Draco Malfoy! YOU should have sense enough to get someone better!"

"Er, meaning yourself?"

"Yes."

Then Cali burst out laughing.. for more than one reason. During Draco and Pansy's exchange, she'd managed to bewitch the Slytherin patch on Pansy's robes. They now sported a great silver pig with curls that looked suspiciously like Pansy's.

"Those are some very justifying robes, Parkinson," Draco said solemnly.

Pansy looked down, screeched then rushed off to her dorm. They could hear her furiously screaming countercurses.

"Finite Incantatem, Parkinson," Cali yelled.

"Oh. Right. _Finite Incantatem_!"

"Idiot," Cali muttered.

"So," Draco said, looking down at her. Cali's hair was spread out behind her, some of it spilling off the couch. "Shall we continue?"

"Oh, yes," Cali replied, giggling.

**Twenty minutes elapse**

"So don't tell me you don't feel any better now."

"Well, Cali said, "that was certainly... fulfilling."

Draco smirked and sat up next to her, panting. They looked curiously at each other for a moment.

"Oh, gosh," Cali said, breaking the silence. "You have bite marks all over your neck."

"All thanks to you," Draco answered.

Cali winked, but she soon went serious. "Draco, what are we going to do about this... about us?"

Draco sighed. "Who cares what that bitch Pansy says?"

"I don't like her any more than you do, but seriously." She placed a finger under his chin and directed his gaze to her. "I mean it. If the entire school's going against us, you have to admit, it's not going to be easy."

"No joke. You know what?"

"No, what?"

"You're absolutely right."

"I know I am. Wait. Right about what?"

"About when you were whining about how unfair this all is... you're right about that."

Cali attempted a smile, but it was hard to do so, with the given circumstances.

"But Cali…" he inhaled, collecting his thoughts. "I love you," he said evenly. His composure never failed to impress her.

Though she had known this deep down since the first time she gazed into his eyes, it meant just so much more hearing it from his lips.

'I love you.' Draco's voice echoed in her head. Then with a sudden, unpleasant lurch, she realized that it would probably be better for the both of them if they didn't like each other so much.

She smiled sadly. "I love you, too, Draco."

And in their gloomy expressions, Cali cracked a bemused smile. Draco looked questioningly at her. "Pansy did remind me of something useful, though."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. She didn't mean to but remember when she said 'Happy Birthday to you two' or something like that?"

"Yeah?"

Cali laughed. "I don't know how I managed to forget about this but my birthday's in two weeks."

"Oh." Draco looked surprised. "Er, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you going to be?"

"Fifteen... why?"

"Oh. For a moment I thought you were older than me.." Draco looked genuinely embarrassed.

Cali laughed. "Don't worry, I won't be sixteen till next year."

Unfortunately, Cali's birthday was not the most important thing at hand. There was still the nagging question of what in the world they should do.

After much discussion and frustration, they decided that they would ignore what Pansy and Harry had told them. In the end, they decided that if it did get worse, they'd deal with it then.

Little did they know, it was about to get a lot worse. With the combined forces of Gryffindor bravery and Slytherin cunningness, it was up to anyone to tell what they were in for.

Draco and Cali left the Slytherin common room, hand in hand, standing firm against what they were to face.

-----

Five chapters and they're already snogging each other.. Go Cali!! Haha.

Ahh.. I've been writing way too much in the last few days. I've written two chapters in about three days. Oh well, it's probably because I know exactly what's to happen and such. It's a lot easier.. I think I've learned my lesson concerning plots.

Well, leave a review!! Thanks to Amy!

Angelee


	6. Flute Mystique

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Six: Flute Mystique

By Angelee

----- 

As soon as Draco and Cali stepped back into the main halls, they were spotted by Hermoine and Ginny.

"Cali!" Hermoine called, hurrying over. "Can we talk?"

"About what?" Cali was torn between her anger and her friendship.

"About before, I.." Hermoine started dragging Cali in the direction of Gryffindor Tower and noticed Draco. "Oh, come along, Malfoy, I suppose there's no harm in you hearing this."

It was a quiet walk up to Gryffindor Tower, and whether it was tension or awkwardness, Cali couldn't tell. Hermoine muttered the password to the fat lady portrait, and in moments, they were all seated by the roaring fire. Passing Gryffindors glanced warily, yet not completely surprised at the sight of Draco Malfoy sitting in their common room.

"So on behalf of Gryffindor, I give you this," Hermoine said, and handed Cali a roll of parchment, sealed with a burgundy ribbon. "Read it later. We're talking now," Hermoine said impatiently, but kindly.

Cali nodded, slipping it into her robes.

"Erm, Cali, I really am sorry about earlier.. I mean, it's true, we Gryffindors don't like the idea of one of us being with, excuse this, Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherins."

"I happen to like that nickname."

"Wonderful. Now," Hermoine barreled on. "No matter what happens to you two," she gestured to them, "I still want to be friends." She said kindly.

Draco grinned. "So you admit it."

"Not YOU, Malfoy! You know I meant Cali!"

Draco smirked even wider. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he said playfully.

"Just shut up, Malfoy!" Hermoine yelled the familiar phrase.

"But I don't want to. This is way too fun."

"YOU are no fun."

"If I'm no fun, what are YOU? I'd hate to even think about that."

Cali watched incredulously as Hermoine would scream, and Draco would calmly reply. 'They must have some serious practise at this,' she thought warily.

Though Cali expected Ginny to back up Hermoine, Ginny merely rolled her eyes and turned to Cali. "Sorry about them. You can't expect them to sit for more than a couple of moments without breaking out an argument about something or another."

Cali laughed. "Yeah, I think we just have to forgive them."

Ginny nodded thoughtfully. "Though I think it's mostly Hermoine's fault, I mean it's always that Draco does something, something small, to annoy her, and damn, is he good at it, and then she just blows up."

"Sticking up for Draco, huh?" Cali said, taunting Ginny.

"I am NOT, I'm telling the truth," Ginny said defiantly. Cali wondered how many times she'd heard that phrase.

"So you've taken the time to notice?" Cali continued teasingly.

"Argh, nevermind that," Ginny giggled. "But what Hermoine was TRYING to say is that we're still going to like you no matter what."

"That's just the problem, though," Cali said, annoyed.

"What is?"

"I know you'll like ME, the whole school does, but you don't like US." Cali pointed to herself and the still drawling and Hermoine-teasing Draco. "Can't you just accept it?"

Ginny stared. "Sorry, but no."

Cali was about to glare but found that she couldn't. "Argh, Ginny, it's just so unfair. I mean, people like me. People like Draco. But those exact same people don't like US. It's the connection. They like us as people, by ourselves, but together, they're got a problem with that. Why? I don't know. But I'm going to find out. If it takes me all of fifth year, I'll do it."

"Wow." Draco clapped. "Impressive speech, Cali."

"Thanks," Cali said lamely, taking a huge breath. "Done with your bickering?"

"Quite," said Hermoine, looking highly irritated. "I think I'm going to class now. See you lot later." And she climbed out the portrait hole.

"Well, she seems all out of sorts," Draco observed.

"Most likely due to you," Ginny said darkly, but couldn't suppress a giggle.

"Find me amusing, do you, Weasley?" Draco himself looked quite amused.

"Perhaps," Ginny replied, regaining composure. "I think I should get to class, too. Trelawney's always all put off on Quidditch days. She says it 'interrupts her flow.' I say she has none." Then she got up after Hermoine.

"See you later, Ginny," Cali said, laughing.

"Bye Weasley," Draco said.

Then it was silent for a moment as Draco and Cali realized that they'd been left alone. 'Probably on purpose,' Cali thought, rolling her eyes.

'Yeah. Weasley seemed in quite a hurry to get out of here.'

'You noticed?' Cali wondered.

'No, I was staring at her skirt. It seemed pleasingly short.'

'Draco.' Cali glared. 'I say it's 'cause she likes you. Probably felt too uncomfortable,' she continued without thinking. 'Oh. Draco, you did not hear me say that.'

'Nah, I heard it all right. And don't fret, I could tell anyways.'

'Oh. Let's go to my dorm. The fire is getting really hot.'

'Or maybe it's just me.'

Cali grinned mischievously. 'Maybe it is. Or maybe it's me.'

'Both of us is a valid reason.'

'True. Now come on. I want to show you something.' She got up and lead the way up to the fifth year girls' dorm.

Draco followed her easily. Cali pushed open the door and was somewhat surprised to see Lavender and Parvati sitting inside.

"Oh. I didn't think you'd be here," Cali said, stepping in.

"We weren't expecting you, either," Lavender replied.

Then Draco stepped in from behind Cali.

"OH." Both Lavender and Parvati said together, blushing immensely.

"Hallo," he greeted them. They sat, still with shock, mouths open.

"Why are you so surprised? He doesn't BITE," Cali said exasperatedly, leading Draco to her trunk. She pulled out a slender black case. She sat down on her bed and Draco sat purposely across from her on the edge of Parvati's bed. Both Lavender and Parvati squeaked.

Besides smirking, Cali and Draco ignored them. Cali was intent on opening up the case and Draco was simply wondering what it was. It was too short to be a sword case; he knew from his father's collection, but too long to be anything else he could think of.

Cali unlocked the case and opened the cover. Putting aside a light blue cloth, she carefully lifted out cylindrical, silver tube closed off on one end. Draco looked on. It looked slightly familiar. Then she lifted out another longer tube, but with raised buttons. She connected the open end of the shorter tube with one end on the second.

Draco had definitely seen this before. But what was it called again? Then, Cali pulled out yet another tube, shorter than the others, with raised buttons as well and connected it to the other end of the middle section. She held it up.

"There."

"What is it?"

"My mom gave it to me as a gift for getting accepted to Hogwarts. It's called a Pure Flute, though I never figured out why."

Draco gazed at it. Then he remembered. His mother had one. "A flute? My mum has one. I don't think I've ever heard her play it, though."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah... why?"

"I don't know. The first time I picked it up, I could play it. My mom can, and even my dad could. But I took it to my friends and none of them could play it at all. Don't you think that's weird?"

"Yeah. But your friends had never tried it before."

"Neither had I," Cali pointed out.

"Oh. Well, then... play something."

Cali lifted the flute to her face. Lavender and Parvati had joined them a bit hesitantly. The Flute was enormously beautiful. The shiny, almost glittering silver made it look as if it'd just come out of a package and there were exquisite designs carved all over the parts not covered with keys. They reminded Draco of intertwining serpents.

Cali blew into the flute and a sweet, mellow sound floated upwards. Draco could barely hold back a gasp. Cali playing it merely added to the beauty of the flute, or maybe the flute added to Cali's beauty. He wasn't sure, but he had to gather every bit of his composure to keep from gaping like a prat.

The song coming out of her flute sounded oddly familiar, though Draco could not, for the life of him, think of any place at all where he could have possibly heard it.

When he was starting to feel seriously detached from himself, even slightly possessed, she stopped playing. He shook himself out of a trance-like state, looking both relieved and dismayed. He'd wanted for her to keep playing, but was a bit unsettled with the fact that he felt as if he would do anything for her. He had a feeling that if she'd played for much longer, he most certainly would have dove to the bottom of the Lake in nothing but bright pink boxers and a Gryffindor scarf ('Clashing HORRIBLY,' he thought), that is, if she'd asked him to.

Fortunately, the idea did NOT cross her mind. That, and she really had no idea...

"So what do you think?" Cali asked, looking curiously at him. He looked a but flustered, so was concerned for that matter, and she wondered if he thought she was completely bonkers for showing him a flute.

Draco snapped out of his thoughts, thinking how silly he must look, sitting silently with a peculiar look upon his face. "It's... it's beautiful," he said, for lack of better words. "The flute and the sound of it."

"Thanks." Cali smiled, internally sighing in relief.

"Are you sure you don't know why it's called a Pure Flute? I mean, it sound pure enough, but there's... there's something else."

"I'm positive. And if I did know... I would tell you."

"Oh. Right," Draco said, feeling increasingly like a complete prat. He still was a but confused from the music.

Cali just brushed it off. She glanced at her watch, dusting off the glazy silver metal. "Ah, it's about time for Transfiguration. Herbology for you," she added.

"Oh, really? Then we should get going. Er, see you later," Lavender piped up. Parvati nodded slightly, blushed, and they hurried out the door with their matching bookbags.

"We're alone again," Draco announced.

"Yeah, and what's the use considering we have, oh, eight minutes to get to class? That, and I think it was on purpose again."

"Most likely."

"And once again, it's probably 'cause they like you."

"Damn," Draco said loudly, "I am fine."

Cali face faulted. "Sure." Then she picked up the light blue cloth.

"Oh, wait!" Draco said, seeing as Cali was about to put her flute up.

"What is it?" Cali paused.

"Can I.. may I try your Flute?"

"Oh." Cali looked confused but nonetheless, held it out to him. "Here."

Draco took it gingerly, almost expecting to go in a trance again, but felt a slight surge of power. "Hm.." he inspected it for a moment, feeling rather drawn to it, and wiped the lip plate. He brought it up and blew a stream of air, feeling, oddly, a bit intimidated.

Immediately, a long, clear tone came through, not as nice as Cali's but a sound, a very descent one. Draco pulled back in surprise.

"You can play it," Cali said at the same time Draco said, "I can play it." Their voices were identical in shock and amazement.

"Well," Cali said. "That was somewhat unexpected. I always thought that maybe it was a family thing, that only my family could play it."

"Hm.." Draco was looking thoughtful again.

"What is it?"

"Actually, I don't know. But apparently, you can either play it or you can't."

"Hm.. yeah, that's true."

They pondered the origins of the Pure Flute for a couple of moments.

"DRACO!" Cali shrieked, "_Accio_!" The Flute flew out of Draco's hands and Cali furiously cleaned and put her Flute up via magic.

"What?" he looked around, alarmed.

"CLASS! In five minutes!" she said, almost throwing the case back into her trunk. She closed the lid and pulled him out the door with her. "I'll have a HELL of a time explaining to McGonagall that I was late to her class 'cause I was too busy snogging a Slytherin!"

"Oh. I forgot," he said blankly as she pulled him along down the stairs, through the common room, and portrait hole. "What's so bad about a Slytherin..?"

"Now come on! You don't know HOW strict McGonagall is with Gryffindors! Unlike Snape, she's harder on her own House! Argh!" Cali rambled on, still dragging Draco along. Then she stopped. "Now I forgot. You're supposed to go to Herbology. Ah, sorry, longer walk for you."

"Gee, thanks, Cali. 'ppreciate it."

"Anytime, Draco." Cali winked and grinned but only for a short moment, not wanting to be late for Transfiguration.

She wasn't the last person there, however. There was one other empty chair next to Dean. Cali didn't know the Gryffindors well enough to use process of elimination. Then, as she strode over to her seat, smiling nervously at Professor McGonagall, Neville Longbottom burst into the room, out of breath and panting. He rushed forward, things spilling out of his bag as he went. Ernie, Hannah, and Justin, three Hufflepuffs, picked it up and placed them on his table.

"S-sorry, Professor. Snape held me behind."

McGonagall nodded. She, of course, was well aware of how Snape treated Gryffindors and though she made no moves to stop him, she understood. "Take a seat, Mr. Longbottom."

Neville dropped, breathless with relief, into the chair next to Dean, and Cali took her usual seat next to Harry. Naturally, she switched the internal connection between her and Draco to her and Harry.

'Where've you been?' Harry asked, already knowing the connection was open.

'Dorm,' she said simply, extracting from her bookbag her Transfiguration book.

'Doing what?'

'Playing,' Cali answered.

'Playing with who, er, what?' Harry grinned.

'My flute. Oh, dear, that didn't come out right at all.'

'Sure didn't. You have a flute?'

Cali went on to explain about the Pure Flute, and even that Draco could play it. Harry was mildly surprised.

'I know there's something up with that lad.'

There was a pause. 'Sure. But, hey, you're not implying my Flute's... magical?'

'I wouldn't know. But if you want, I'll look at it during break.'

'Yeah, sure.'

And this caused for more class distractions.

'Hey, can I tell Hermoine about your Flute?'

'No. What'd you think?'

'Well, why not? She might know something about it.'

'No, you prat, you can't tell her 'cause you're not telepathic. At least not till break.'

'Right.' He blushed slightly.

Cali smiled and for the first time since classes had started, they concentrated fully on their work.

At the end of class, Cali was feeling quite satisfied. She had mastered the transfiguration of a noisemaker to a floating candle. During break, she, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine had all headed up to Cali and Hermoine's dorm room.

Hermoine dawdled a bit behind the group, smiling brightly at the pop quiz they'd taken at the end of class. McGonagall had a bad habit of doing that, just to see who paid attention and who didn't. But to no one's surprise, Hermoine had managed a perfect score, bonuses included.

They flounced, rather happily, to the tower. Hermoine, still intent on her quiz, crashed right into what should have been open area next to the fat lady portrait. She looked up, confused. Then her eyes darkened, glazed over with anger and irritation.

"Malfoy, do watch where you're going!" she said irritably.

"Actually, I've been standing here for about five minutes. It was you who walked into me. You should keep that head of yours out of... what is that?" He snatched the parchment out of her hands. "Ah, perfect score. This could come in handy, since I haven't had Transfiguration yet..."

Hermoine glared viciously.

"But," he sniffed. "I'd rather fail valiantly than copy off a Mudblood."

"Draco," Cali said warningly, "if you want to come with us, you're not going to call her a Mudblood. You'll be kicked out of here and reported by all the other Gryffindors before you can say 'joking.'"

"Yes, ma'am," Draco saluted her regally.

Cali rolled her eyes. "Periwale," she said, and the portrait swung aside, smiling at all but Draco.

Hermoine and Cali went up to the dorm while the others stayed in the common room. They reappeared moments later, Hermoine with a new load of books, and Cali with her Flute.

They gathered eagerly Cali as she opened the case, placed the cloth aside and put the Flute together. It was passed carefully around and everyone took a good look at it. No one had thought to try and play it, however, until it reached Draco.

"Hey, try playing something," Cali said suddenly.

"But I don't know the fingering or anything. How the heck will I-"

"No, just try it. The first time I picked it up, the fingerings just... came to me, I guess. I want to see if it's the same for someone else."

"All right, then," Draco said doubtfully and lifted it to his lips. For three notes, his long fingers stumbled a bit across the keys, but one could tell that it was the beginning to a song.

"See, there you go." Cali didn't look at all surprised, neither did Draco; he actually looked thoughtful.

"What if it's Dark Magic? And it only effects some people-"

Cali cut him off again. "Don't be silly. Of course it's not Dark Magic. One, my parents wouldn't have given it to me, and two, I've had it for a year, and I'm not dead." 'Please?' she added as an afterthought.

Draco nodded uncertainly, still inspecting the Flute. He was a bit confused over her Flute. Why could he play it and not anyone else? He was utterly confused. 'Now I know how Longbottom feels all the time,' he thought.

"Here. Try playing again. Just... clear your mind, I mean, don't think about the fingerings so much, just let the Flute do it for you."

"Okay." He lifted it again, looking oddly at the Flute, but played it at Cali's encouragement. This time, a clear melody floated upwards. 'There, you happy?'

Cali was too preoccupied. They all were staring. "Whoa," Ron and Cali both said. 'He looks like an angel when he plays... wow,' Cali thought subconsciously.

Hermoine looked distressed. "What if he's right?" She jerked her thumb toward Draco, looking pained at saying Draco had even a possibility of being correct. "It COULD be Dark Magic. Here, hand it over, Malfoy. If anyone would know about Dark Magic, it'd be you, no doubt, but I'm the one with brains."

Draco glared but handed her the Flute. "As if a Mudblood could make anything of it I couldn't," he muttered, but Cali heard him.

'Draco, what did I tell you about that? Don't call her a Mudblood!'

'Sorry, geez, but it's the truth.'

She rolled her eyes. 'I knew you were going to say that.'

'How?'

'Don't tell me you haven't noticed that you say that a whole lot?'

'Maybe, maybe not.'

Then they turned their attention to Hermoine, who was looking at every part of the Flute, tapping her wand on various keys.

"Hermoine," Cali said warningly. "If you do anything to it, I will kill you."

"Okay, okay," Hermoine said, "I'm just seeing if it'll do anything.. turn into some Dark Arts weapon."

Cali stared. 'This is totally absurd. I still stand by the fact, and yes, it is a fact, that this is NOT Dark Magic!'

'You mean you don't believe me?'

She looked him in the eyes, grinning. 'Give me one reason why I would.'

' 'Cause Draco Malfoy's always right.'

'Sure.'

'Quoting yourself, I knew you were going to say that.'

'Do I say that a lot?'

'Yes. See? I'm right.'

Cali had to stop herself from saying 'sure' again.

Hermoine sighed. "Well if it makes you any happier, it's not responding to anything I do."

"Told you," Cali said irritably.

"Wait. What are these carvings?" she pointed to the serpent-like carvings all over the Flute.

Cali shrugged. "Decoration, perhaps?" She looked quite annoyed.

"Okay, just one more idea. _Aparecium_!"

A pause. Nothing happened.

"Oh, just lay off it. My Flute doesn't have invisible writing on it. Give it to me; I'm putting it up. I'm hungry for lunch." And with a couple of taps of her own, the flute was clean, shining, and in the case. She hurried up to the dorm, dropped it off, and they were off to the Great Hall.

Draco did receive many odd stares and glares from the Gryffindors as they hurried off to lunch, passing the group in the common room.

They climbed out the portrait hole and started the long walk to the Great Hall.

"What was the song you were playing?" Cali asked curiously.

"Ah, just a song I heard somewhere."

"I bet it's the one his mom sings to him at night," Ron said, sniggering.

"And Potter wishes he had a mom to sing to him," Draco countered automatically.

"DRACO!" Cali shouted, "THAT WAS INCREDIBLY MEAN!"

"I know. That's part of why I said it. That, and-"

"It was the truth. I KNOW you're going to say that so just shut up!"

"Okay." Draco looked away nonchalantly.

**A minute elapses**

"It's too quiet," Cali whined. "Draco, say something!"

----- 

Thanks bunches to all my reviewers, I'll list them next chapter. I want to get this up as fast as possible. Please leave a review! Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Angelee


	7. Unexpected Change

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Seven: Unexpected Change

By Angelee

Chapter SEVEN! Phew. I'm so proud of myself for getting this far.

Ah, there's been cuts and bruises, smiles and snoggings, screaming and swearing... quite interesting. But, of course, there's a lot more to come. Mysteries revealed... that you never knew existed.. or do you? Hehee

This chapter: lunch conversations (those are always.. er, amusing, at least at my lunch table), Charms class, a nightly escapade, and of course, surprises!

Read forth..

-----

It was like déjà vu.

'Midnight?'

'Gotcha.'

'It's a bit early to be deciding this, don't you think?'

'Not really.'

The last to speak, or think, as to say, was Draco. He and Cali were planning out a meeting, as to make up for the one they'd missed.

Draco winked and went back to his spoken conversation with Blaise Zabini, who was talking animatedly, leaning across the table.

Cali turned back to the Gryffindors. She looked around for any sort of conversation starter. Harry and Hermoine were in deep conversation; Ron was chiding Ginny about.. something ('Probably about taking the likes to Draco,' Cali thought bemusedly). Usually, it was completely natural for her to start conversation about, well, just about anything. They all had.. distressed looks? No, more.. well, she didn't know.

She turned to most 'distressed' looking of them all. "Er, Neville, anything wrong?"

"Um, well, it's was.. it's was Potions," he stuttered, looking highly embarrassed. "You saw.. I don't want to repeat..."

The table looked, annoyed, at her.

"Sorry, I mean, I wasn't there... remember?" Cali said, looking equally annoyed.

"Oh, right," Dean said, remembering. "You weren't."

Cali sighed. "So, up to telling?"

"I suppose," Neville said. "It was this Potion Snape introduced."

"Hmm.. new Potion, eh? I dare not ask what it does.." Cali said, her eyes dancing with amusement.

"Well, it turns the drinker into a random animal, if you can call it an animal. It's usually just an animal in an odd colour and such. You never know what it'll be till, well, you drink the Potion," Dean explained.

"Wow," Cali said. This could be interesting. Snape and a Potion like that, along with some of his despised Gryffindors was potentially hilarious. "So.. er.. lemme guess. Snape made one of you guys drink and Potion and you turned into a-" - she thought of an earlier conversation with Draco - "a bright pink mountain goat?"

There was a terrified pause. "How-how did you know?" Neville squeaked.

Cali was shocked. "I didn't, I mean, er, it's TRUE?" she could hardly believe it.

"Yes," Neville said, looking down at his food.

"It was horrible," Harry piped up.

Cali merely nodded, trying to put on a sympathetic face. Oh, yes, that was it. They were all looking sympathetically at Neville. She fought down the urge to laugh; she had the funniest mental image in her head.

Then, on impulse, she looked over behind her at the Slytherin table on the other end of the Hall. As she'd expected, the Slytherins were pointing and laughing at Neville. Someone must've filled Draco in on what had happened, and they were all reminiscing about the earlier events. Cali wished she could be laughing with them, but she knew the Gryffindors wouldn't be too happy if she did.

"Oh," she said, remembering the parchment Hermoine had given her. She removed it from a pocket and untied the ribbon. There didn't seem to be any harm reading it now, for she was sitting amongst those who'd written it.

The page had neat, but not completely fancy handwriting on it. She couldn't recognize anyone's handwriting, but she had a feeling it was Hermoine's.

She read to herself: 'To California Drache - so formal - We, the Gryffindors, - she stopped again, thinking of the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. She rolled her eyes. - have decided upon this: - here, the letter was written in a higher voice, but with much humour - the relationship with you and Malfoy is not exactly what we consider, as to say, right. To be most blunt, we do not like it, as you may have noticed. - now really, she muttered, - If you are to proceed, know that you have been forewarned. You and that scum may not like what is coming.'

"What is coming?"

"I don't know," said Harry. "Wait a second. What are you talking about?"

"This," she threw the paper onto the table, as if it were threatening to take a bite out of her hand.

"Oh, that. Hermoine wrote it," Harry said automatically. "Ooh, I was not supposed to say that," he added promptly.

"It's okay. I figured. Oh, screw this," she said, wich much emphasis on the last two words. She grabbed the paper and got up. Several Gryffindors watched her leave.

It was her turn to walk across the Great Hall, grab Draco, and stomp out.

"What-what is it?" Draco said, still laughing from something he'd heard. "No 'we need to talk'?"

"No. Look at this." She thrust the paper into his hands. "It's ridiculous."

He read it quickly, making similar side comments, and rolled his eyes. "This is positively retarded," he said, for lack of better words. "I mean it. I don't need it in black and white to tell."

Cali sighed. "Yeah, Hermoine has to make it all official, now, doesn't she?"

"Yep. That's Mudblood for you."

"Whatever. I just thought you should know." Cali said nothing of the Mudblood name-calling. At this point, she didn't really care. It WAS the truth, she thought, laughing dryly.

"So did you hear about Potions?" Draco said suddenly.

Cali snickered. "Sure did. But I couldn't crack up as I wanted to.. I was sitting with the Gryffindors, after all."

"Such a pity. You should sit with us. It's loads better than those goody- goodies."

"So blunt today, are we?"

"Sorry."

She knew what was coming.

"It's the truth."

"Yeah, I know. Oh, boy, do I know," she sighed again.

They stood in silence for awhile, just enjoying each other's company.

Then Cali burst out, desperately. "It's too quiet!"

"What is it with you and silence?"

"I don't know," she whined. "It bothers me."

Fortunately, there was no explanation needed, for students were starting to file out of the Hall, starting off for the afternoon classes.

"Oh, well, see you later, Draco, I should hurry. It takes forever getting up to Divination," Cali said.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, you know what Trelawney told me yesterday?"

"What?"

"She said," Draco imitated Professor Trelawney's fake, distant voice, "You will encounter much pain very soon, and with that will come great depression. Do not be compelled to suicide; if you wait it out, it will heal."

"Weird," Cali said, rolling her eyes. She was one of the many who thought Professor Trelawney was a total fraud. "Well, I should get going."

Then, they parted, Cali trailing after the Gryffindors and Draco leading the Slytherins outside for CoMC.

The Gryffindors were all panting and out of breath upon arriving at Professor Trelawney's "classroom."

"Hurry up, now, take a seat," Trelawney urged them, for once being there at the beginning, instead of her usual dramatic entrance. "Today we will look deeply into the depths of crystal ball. I'm sure that with your previous experience, we will all See today."

"Suure," Cali said, plopping down a cream coloured pouf. Harry and Ron took seats around the table. Cali had never figured out why Hermoine didn't take this class; she took almost every other one, and this one was a total waste of time. 'Maybe that's why,' Cali realized.

Each table had several crystal balls placed around its edges. The three of them pulled one toward them and scowled at it.

As usual, when the class was working with crystal balls, only Lavender and Parvati claimed to See anything. The rest of the class looked bored and oftentimes, for entertainment purposes, made things up to please Professor Trelawney.

"Miss Drache, care to share what you See?"

"Err.." Cali did not see anything. She looked over at Harry and Ron, who looked sympathetically at her, and winked. "I see... pain. Heartbreak. Um.. I'm going to be too miserable to eat and er, I'll almost starve."

"Oh?" Trelawney pulled a deep blue pouf over and examined Cali's crystal ball. Her eyes widened, giving her an extremely turtle-ish look. "Miss Drache, have you had any experience with crystal balls in your earlier life, a past life, perhaps?"

'Past life? Who is she?!' Cali thought, but said, "No, Professor."

"You have been gifted greatly, then, California. I see... yes, heartbreak. You will feel horrible. No, no starving.. not quite? Yes... I see. Your near future does not look bright," Trelawney said somberly.

'Gee, thanks,' thought Cali. 'And who says 'near future', anyway?'

"I see.. blonde hair?" Trelawney said, slipping out of her misty state for a moment.

"Er, I'm blonde?" Cali said, rolling her eyes. This was unbelievably ridiculous.

"I see... two blonde heads," Trelawney's eyes rocketed up.

Ron nearly fell backwards off his pouf. "Ma-Malfoy?" he choked. Harry looked quite pale, as well.

Cali looked surprised, too. "Um, thanks for the help, Professor. I think, I think I can handle it from here," she said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Yes, I do believe you have the right idea. Use your powers well, California. You have a strong Inner Eye.." Trelawney trailed off, and whooshed away to annoy another table.

"Ha... ha.. HA, Cali, you have a strong Inner Eye!" Ron and Harry were cracking up.

"I WAS MAKING IT UP!" Cali retorted, looking enormously irritated. "Gosh!"

"Okay, okay," Ron apologized. "But do you think she was making all that crap up about you and Malfoy?"

"Whoever said this has anything to do with Draco?!" Cali said incredulously.

"Oh, do use those brains.. your Inner Eye," Ron snickered. "Who else do you know has bright blonde hair like yours? Any guys, mind you."

"Ew, Ron, that's not right," Cali said, wrinkling her nose. "I suppose you're right, though. But.. heartbreak?" Cali looked alarmed.

"Oh," Ron said. "Excellent, perhaps he's cheating on you!"

"Gee thanks, Ron."

"Sorry," he said with a bit of a shrug.

"You guys, we all know Trelawney's a fake. Why are we worrying about this?" Harry said, rolling his eyes at them both.

"You're right. For all we know, I could be having sex with him in a month!"

"Oh, we really needed to know that," Harry said. Ron looked quite purple in the face.

"Sorry," Cali apologized. "But _really_."

"Yeah, I know. Let's just forget about this," Ron suggested, trying to clear the thought from mind.

Cali laughed. "Alright."

The problem was, Cali couldn't get the events out of her mind. She knew Trelawney was a huge fraud, but could she possibly be right? Then, Cali remembered what Draco had told her earlier. "You will encounter much pain very soon, and with that will come great depression. Do not be compelled to suicide; if you wait it out, it will heal." Her eyes widened.

"Oh, my gosh," she breathed. 'DRACO! WHERE ARE YOU?' she yelled into their minds.

'AH! Cali! What IS it?' he responded, sounding surprised.

'Oh, just hurry up to Charms. We HAVE to talk,' she thought hurriedly, ignoring Draco's snickering at the phrase.

She dragged Harry and Ron down the tower, not hearing their protests, and they were all out of breath upon arrival at the Charms classroom, though Cali paid no attention to that.

Draco wasn't there yet. 'Hurry up, you prat!!' Cali screamed.

'First of all, I see you've picked up that insult from the motherland. And gee, what's the rush? You're telepathic, we can talk all class, and besides, Crabbe and Goyle aren't capable of walking any faster.'

'Then LEAVE THEM BEHIND!'

'Oh, good idea. Why didn't I think of it..?'

'Because you're a prat, now hurry up!'

Three seconds later, Draco strolled into the classroom and strode up to Cali.

"So what is so urgent that you couldn't let me walk normally?"

"Umm," Cali looked embarrassed. "Sorry, got carried away a bit-" - Draco raised an eyebrow - "Okay, more than a bit, but go sit down in your seat. You know how Gryffindor and Slytherin feel about us."

"Right." He went over to his seat and sat down, still looking at her funny. 'Oh, let me guess. You heard something outright unsettling from Trelawney, and you, being a bigger prat than I, decided to believe that loon, and now you're all whoohoo about it?'

'Somewhat,' she said, glaring. 'I am not stupid like that. Trelawney did say something, but believe me, you want to hear this.'

'Then by all means, spit it out.'

Cali sighed. 'She said that I would be extremely heartbroken in my 'near future' and that it involved two blondes.'

'Which you're assuming would be us?'

'Who else would it be?' She repeated Ron's words.

'I guess you're right, then. But what's your point?'

'You _are_ a prat. Don't you realize that it matches what she told you?!'

'Of course I do, but don't you think, well I don't know, that's maybe she's _wrong as usual_?!'

Cali snickered, remembering what she'd told Ron and Harry at that comment. 'Hehe..'

'What?'

'Nothing.'

'What are you 'hehe'-ing about?'

'One, you sound ridiculous saying that, and two, NOTHING.'

'Fine. But I wouldn't think much of it. You know Trelawney...'

'Right.'

Flitwick had long since arrived and decided to give them a free period, due to the fact that a supply of yellow-bellied tortoises hadn't come in for them to cast the day's charm on.

Draco and Cali were now discussing their midnight meeting. Much against the tide of glares, they had taken seats near the back of the classroom, in a secluded corner, so no one would overhear.

"Why the heck would we need to sneak out at midnight?"

"Because," Draco said airily, "I have some unfinished business to attend to."

"And why would I be involved with this?"

"You might come in handy."

"Oh, thanks," Cali said.

"No problem. We're going to McGonagall's office, if you wanted to know."

"McGonagall? Why?"

"Nevermind. You'll find out later. Stop asking questions."

"Hmph. What makes you think I'm going to sneak out for you? I don't want to know what'll happen when the school finds out about this. They're really going to hate us."

"You make it sound like they're definitely going to catch us. They're not going to, not with me, anyway," he winked, "and I know you'll do it. We both do."

"Oh... you're.. you're right," Cali resigned.

"I always am."

**11:00; Fifth Year Gryffindor Girls' Dorm**

Hermoine, Lavender, Parvati, and Cali were talking on and on about the day's activities. They were currently on the subject of Divination and Professor Trelawney. Lavender and Parvati were gushing about their wonderful futures, and looking highly offended when Cali made a snide remark.

"You do know that Trelawney is a scam, right?" Cali said pointedly.

"Of course not," Parvati huffed. "We're lucky to have such a gifted teacher as her!"

"Sure," Cali said dryly.

Hermoine looked quite interested, even as she was catching up on reading. On this matter, she took Cali's side. She hadn't been on Professor Trelawney's good side back on third year, when she'd taken the class briefly, before dropping it.

Cali looked nervously at her alarm clock, with her watch placed aside. She hoped they wouldn't talk for too much longer, or she'd have a hard time sneaking out. Lavender and Parvati were definitely able to talk for hours on end, unfortunately. But thankfully, they were tired and ready for bed within fifteen minutes.

"Goodnight, Cali," Hermoine yawned. "Goodnight, Lavender, Parvati."

"'Night, Hermoine, Lavender, Parvati," Cali answered, and lay down. She had her jacket under her bed.

Lavender and Parvati exchanged goodnights with the rest of them.

"Goodnight, Cali, sweet dreams," Lavender said sleepily.

Cali snickered, knowing Lavender would probably be dreaming of Draco, whereas she'd be with him tonight. "Oh, dear," she whispered quietly.

After making positively sure that the three were asleep in their dreams, Cali sat up slowly. 'I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm sneaking out at night, and I could be seen by anyone..' But she knew deep down that she'd do it, she'd do it for Draco.

She tiptoed out of the dorm, down the stairs, and reached the portrait hole. The portrait swung aside.

"Draco?" she whispered. He'd said he would come up to Gryffindor Tower.

"At your service," he said, smirking.

She climbed out, feeling a chill. She'd forgotten her jacket again.

"Damn it," she cursed. "I left my jacket up in the dormitory again!"

She said nothing more when Draco draped his cloak over her shoulders.

"Keep quiet. I didn't see Filch on the way up, so let's hope we won't on the way down."

Cali's mouth formed an "oh." She smiled gratefully at him, pulling the cloak around her. Usually, she was cold nature outside, but when it was cold in school, she was shivering.

Draco lead the way down, Cali tripping over his cloak occasionally out of nerves, and also because it was a bit long on her, him being significantly taller.

They walked silently, and for once, Cali did not complain about it. She was intent on following Draco, who walked in long strides, and not getting lost in the darkness. They arrived at McGonagall's office shortly.

"So tell me, why are we here?"

"Unfinished business, like I said last time you asked," he answered simply.

"WHAT IS IT?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

"It's from last year."

"So why are you doing this NOW?"

"So she won't suspect me, of course," he explained. "_Alohomora_." The door opened, with a light creak.

"Oh. That makes sense." Cali felt as if all her brains were on pause in the dark. She felt really out of it.. almost drunk. "Draco.. I feel drunk," she whispered, giggling.

He rolled his eyes. "You don't get out in the dark enough, do you?"

"Naaw.. not really."

"Great. Just.. keep quiet. And help me with this." He motioned for her to open a box and she did so, a bit clumsily.

"Whoa." Her eyes refocused for a moment. "What's all this?"

"Stuff I bought from those Weasley twins. They might be defective, since they hate me, but that's no matter. We're jacking up McGonagall's office, after all."

Cali nodded blankly and lifted something out of the box.

They managed to make a huge mess, and it smelled horrible. When they finished their work, and were both thoroughly satisfied, they both were feeling lightheaded, and Cali was feeling both drunk and high.

Draco nearly had to drag her out the classroom, and while he was doing so, he tripped (once in a lifetime) over none other but Mrs. Norris.

Naturally, she let out a huge screech, alerting Filch.

"Oh shit!" Draco hissed, and they fled the scene. But Mrs. Norris recovered and streaked after them. Unfortunately, Filch caught up with them.

"What are you two doing up out of bed? Making trouble, are we?" Filch sneered and lead them to his office.

They gulped.

'And what were you saying about not getting caught?'

'I was hoping.'

'Right.'

"Now let's see.. thirty points from Gryffindor and Slytherin, and a detention for you both."

Both Draco and Cali groaned.

"Gryffindor's going to kill me," Cali whined.

"Slytherin won't kill me, but it won't be good," Draco joined in.

"Oh, shut up, the two of you. Fifth years shouldn't be whining like you two are," Filch said nastily. "Now get with you. I don't want to see you out of bed again."

They trudged out, slamming the door behind them.

"This is just great," Cali said. "Wait till Gryffindor finds out. If I'm not at breakfast tomorrow, you'll know why."

"Oh, stop worrying. I'm sure you'll be fine," Draco said nonchalantly.

"Easy for you to say," she whispered. "Slytherin would never get mad at you, not even for sneaking out with a Gryffindor. They'd just blame it all on me! ARGH!"

"Shut up!" He clapped a hand over her mouth. "If someone else catches us on the way back, you'll get more points off, not to mention another detention. I don't think you want that, not with how you're reacting."

Cali glared. "No, I wouldn't."

They walked back up to Gryffindor Tower in silence again. Though when they reached the portrait hole, Cali was in a much better mood.

"Periwale," she whispered, then turned to Draco. "Goodnight, Draco."

"'Night, Cali." He leaned down and gave her a light kiss. "See you tomorrow. They won't kill you, I promise."

They smiled and Cali climbed through. When she reached her dorm, she was relieved to find that Hermoine, Lavender, and Parvati were all still snoozing.

She sighed heavily and slipped into bed, without taking off Draco's cloak. She'd forgotten to give it back to him.

--**Cali's dream**--

"We have a new student joining us from America as a fifth year. California Drache, please come forward," Professor McGonagall said.

She advanced to the stool at the front of the Hall, aware of all the eyes on her.

McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head.

"Sweet, yet with an edge. You have a knack at spells already.. a good student. You were very determined to master the spells… You're independent and mischievous. It should be.. Gryffindor or Slytherin?"

--**end dream**--

Cali bolted awake, not getting to see the end of her dream. But she didn't care. She had an idea.

**Morning; Great Hall**

There was no way for the Gryffindors to find out what had happened last night till they came to the Great Hall.

"Why do you have a cloak on?" Hermoine had asked.

"That's too big for you, too," Lavender added suspiciously.

Cali just waved them off, dragging her feet off to the bathroom.

Now they were in the Great Hall, and somehow, word had gotten out. Cali had gotten there early, partly because she couldn't fall back asleep and two, because she had to talk to Dumbledore about her idea.

Draco had been right, she was not dead, but both Gryffindor and Slytherin were very mad at her; Gryffindor for losing points and Slytherin just because they all thought it was her fault for Draco sneaking out.

When most of the students had trickled in, Dumbledore stood up.

"Students, settle down," he said, seeing the glares all around. "This is a rare occasion, but a Resorting has been requested."

Everyone looked curiously around.

"Professor McGonagall, the Hat?"

McGonagall stepped forward, Sorting Hat in hand, and looking quite flustered from seeing her office.

"Now, if Miss California Drache will step on up..."

There were gasps all around the Hall as Cali stood up, her heart burning with determination and anger, and strode up quickly to the stool. She sat down quickly, robes and hair whirling.

McGonagall placed the Hat down on Cali's head, looking stiffly at her.

The familiar voice came through.

"You, again? Back in doubt?"

Cali nodded, looking around at the sea of curious faces. 'Maybe not so much doubt… I need a comfirmation from you.'

"Hmm.." the Hat analyzed her once again then spoke. "I don't believe you've really changed. You have merely let your true self shine through. The two choices still stand. I give you the choice..."

Cali whispered a word.

"Right, then."

The crowd looked expectantly at her.

"SLYTHERIN!"

-----

I love that ending. Hehe.

So what do you think? Good or not? I don't have much to say this time. Oh, I'm starting a website of all my fics, or at least some. I don't know if I want to put all of them on there so.. if you want, tell me which fics you'd like to see on there. This is what I have so far: now that chapter seven's done, I can go write my offscene!! You'll see.. I'm putting it up as its own chapter, but just read the author's notes at the beginning. It'll make sense.

As always, review, please!

Angelee


	8. A Charm and Two Butterbeers

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Eight: A Charm and Two Butterbeers

By Angelee

Whoo, Cali's in Slytherin now!

Many masses of thanks to: Sunny, Kaesa, PreCiouS julZ, Angel of Music, anonymous, linzi, Me, Keeper of the Moon, Irene (her many names --), Amy, and Jay Kamiya!! I LOVE YA'LL. not literally, you know what I mean

Alright. We're going to get this straight right now, right here. I don't have that much time anymore to write this, unfortunately, so damnit people, STOP RUSHING ME. One, it pisses me off, which makes the story all low quality, and two, IT MAKES THE STORY LOW QUALITY! Ahh.. yes, I am pissed off right now because of someone's whose name I don't wish to type. If you really want me to hurry up, here what you SHOULD do: Review, constructively criticize, or if you don't see anything that can be improved, come up with some ideas... it's always fun to see if you can guess what happens next. Now, notice that in none of that, does it say, "bother the shit out of me". I think we get the point. I'll stop cussing and keep writing.

Hah. Did you enjoy the offscene (if you read it)? Hehe. Sorry, I was real hyper when the idea came to me, so if you're all thinking, "that's totally messed up; seek help," then I suppose that makes sense. ; And I'm still kind of hyper.. so let's see what happens..

-----

--**recap**--

"Hmm.." the Hat analyzed her once again then spoke. "I don't believe you've really changed. You have merely let your true self shine through. The two choices still stand. I give you the choice..."

Cali whispered a word.

"Right, then."

The crowd looked expectantly at her.

"SLYTHERIN!"

--**end recap**--

The students were stunned. Professors were stunned. Draco was stunned. Cali was stunned.. sort of.

In the shock, she did not get off the stool. She sat there, and slowly turned around to face Professor Dumbledore. He was smiling. Cali smiled back, relieved and promptly stepped off the stool, and began walking to the table.. the Slytherin table.

She then glanced at Draco for the first time all morning. He literally had his mouth wide open and gaping, making no move to close it and pull himself together. Though most of the Hall looked quite similar, she was still surprised to see him like this.

"What, you didn't think I was good enough to be in Slytherin?" she grinned, asking him curiously. All eyes were still on her.

"I.. I.. I wasn't expecting this," he said blankly.

She laughed, but soon turned serious. "I don't think anyone was," she said, looking nervously around the Hall. She gazed at him, and then a bit to snap him out of his trance, yet mostly out of sheer emotion, she swung her arms around his neck, hugging him fiercely.

Draco recovered immediately, and wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her hair. "Welcome home, Cali," he whispered.

"Thanks," she said, knowing exactly what he meant. She smiled, tears forming in her eyes, but she blinked them away.

For the rest of breakfast, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs all wore expressions that included raised eyebrows and open mouths. The Slytherins were somewhat surprised. The Gryffindors, however, looked murderous.

Cali shivered, seeing some of the glares she was getting from the opposite side of the room, near where she was sitting minutes ago.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, completely oblivious, as most of the Slytherin table was. Cali was sitting in his lap, and they were barely eating, for everyone was busy talking.

"Ha, so how do the Gryffindors like that?" a sixth year was saying.

"Not at all, by the looks of them," Cali said, gesturing to the furiously discussing Gryffindor table. They caught the words "bitch" and "traitor."

"MAN!" Cali said, exasperatedly, "You'd think they'd stop caring about me.. us.. now that I'm not in Gryffindor, but noo, they think I'm a freakin traitor!"

"True, quite true, but remember, they're Gryffindors. They hate us. So now they hate you, too," the sixth year explained dryly.

"Great," Cali said sarcastically.

"Hah. If anything, I bet they're jealous. We, their worst enemy ever, have something they don't," Draco spoke up, smirking in the direction of the other tables.

"You make it sound like I'm an object," Cali commented sardonically.

"I didn't mean that," he said drawled, "I'm just saying... you know you're hot. We all know you're hot."

Cali rolled her eyes but grinned. "I know what you mean. I totally know what you mean." She then smirked at the Gryffindor table. Her smirk looked surprisingly like Draco's.

"So you see," Draco drawled, "they're horribly jealous."

Cali laughed. "Makes sense to me."

Then the Slytherins paused conversation and stuffed themselves with food.

--**Gryffindor Table**--

"No way," Ron was saying.

"Yes way, you saw what just happened.. though.. I'm about as shocked as you.." Hermoine answered. Harry just nodded.

'I knew it'd happen.. I could see it in her eyes. She's a true Slytherin, no doubt about it, and I hate for it to be this way, but argh.. it's not like I can convince her to get Resorted again, not to mention convince the Sorting Hat to stick her back here with us..' Harry thought, sighing.

"What a bitch," Hermoine muttered. "And she had me going, too. I thought she was my friend..." she looked sad. What she didn't know was that Cali was her friend.. and still wanted to be.

"What a traitor..." Ron said, looking deeply pained.

"You guys, it's not like we can do anything about it," Harry said slowly.

Both of them, along with the rest of the table that wasn't already arguing, raised eyebrows.

"You sure don't seem mad about it," Lavender said.

"You sure are observant," Harry wanted to say. "Of course I'm unsettled. But really, she's a nice girl, as long as you're on her good side. And as I said, we can't do anything about it, so there's no point fussing..." he trailed off. No one was listening, no one wanted to reason.

--**Slytherin Table**--

They continued with conversation.

"Right.. this is going to sound extremely awkward, but.." Cali started, glancing down the table of new faces.

"Wha'zit?" another fifth year Cali didn't know asked lazily.

"Er.. now that I'm in Slytherin... is there any difference between how you felt about us.." she pointed to her and Draco, "back when I was in Gryffindor and now?"

The table considered this.

"Definite difference. You're a Slytherin now; I suspected you should've been from the start, so you're worthy of being with Draco," another sixth year spoke up, voicing their thoughts.

Cali cracked a grin. "Great!" She looked up at Draco, who slowly leaned down and gave her a light kiss.

"Oh, how sweet!" Blaise squealed, though she looked as if she wished it had been her.

Draco smiled cockily at Cali, causing her to almost melt in his arms. She reached up to kiss him but he stopped her, placing a finger over her lips.

"We'll continue this later," he promised.

Cali nodded. Yeah, that was probably a good idea.

Then ten minutes before breakfast ended, Snape whirled up to them and handed Cali a lightly green-tinted parchment.

"Now that you're in Slytherin," he said, looking amused, maybe even a bit proud, "you'll be needing a new schedule. Congratulations." And with that, he walked away.

Cali grinned for the umpteenth time that morning. This was going absolutely great. She peered at her new schedule. She obviously still had Potions first class, but then it changed. Herbology was next, instead of Transfiguration.

The rest of breakfast went by quickly, everyone at the Slytherin table conversing in whispers, instead of all together.

"So you think we should trust her? She _was_ a Gryffindork," a seventh year girl asked her boyfriend.

"Yeah, I think we should. I mean, the Hat wouldn't have put her in Slytherin if it had doubts. It knows we mentally slaughter those who don't belong."

"Exceptionally true," the girl grinned wickedly. "She seems cool. And she looks _so_ cute with Draco," she said, watching the two of them talk.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Cali was confused now. "Do I have to carry all my stuff from Gryffindor Tower all the way to the Dungeons? No way."

Draco shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they'll move it for you."

"I should hope so. That'd be horrible!"

"No joke. Want to go see? If they moved it for you, they probably already have."

"Yeah."

They got up, said goodbyes to the table, and started off for Gryffindor Tower. Cali felt strange walking up there, knowing she probably never would again. But it was a good, thrilling feeling. She was a Slytherin.

'Me. A Slytherin,' she thought, smiling happily, her hand clasped in Draco's.

They reached the Tower and Cali all of a sudden wondered if they'd changed the password, so she couldn't get back in.

"Periwale," Draco said for her in her confusion.

The portrait hole swung open, and they stepped inside. To Cali's dismay, her things were still where she'd left them.

"Damnit," she muttered. "So I'm guessing they expect me to lug all this across the school?"

"I suppose," Draco said lightly. "Better get started. It's on the way to Potions, so you could take it all down now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Draco helped Cali take her trunk out the portrait hole. The fat lady gave her a sad smile. Apparently, she'd heard about the Resorting. Cali smiled back but then turned right to Draco. "Let's go!" She was eager to get to the Slytherin Dungeons.

But the excitement wore down considerably as they lugged the trunk through the school. It was not till halfway through they realized that one, they probably wouldn't get in trouble for performing a charm on the trunk to make it lighter and two, Cali could just teleport them.

Cali gave a frustrated sigh, nearly screamed aloud, but teleported them. They now stood in front of the Slytherin Dungeons.

"Glisslerink," Draco said. This, evidently, was the password. It sounded like hissing.

'No wonder,' she thought. "Aarrrgh," she muttered, still annoyed. She placed the trunk, with a dull thud, next to an empty bed in the room Pansy had fled to. She had no time to marvel at her new surroundings, for the two of them were due in Potions in about three minutes.

They streaked across the common room, arriving at the Potions dungeon with two minutes to spare. Snape barely gave them a look, which, Cali realized, was much unlike what would've happened if she were in Gryffindor.

Cali felt extremely tense around Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. Did they feel any different towards her? Stupid question, she commented. But.. were they still willing to be friends? To tolerate each other at all? She'd witnessed their talks about how much they loathed Slytherins, and now she was one of them. But did being in Gryffindor previously make any difference at all? Perhaps the fact that they knew her, they'd liked her, would make things better. Perhaps...

Snape was now writing things down on the board. Cali assumed she'd missed his usual talk about what Potion they'd be making today in her thoughts. So she craned her neck, hoping for a clue in the ingredients. There weren't any that she could easily identify so she sat back and chanced a look at Ron.

He noticed her looking at him and attempted a glare. It didn't quite work.

'Ron... what's wrong?'

At this he took a deep breath, as if preparing for a speech. 'What do mean what's wrong? You know what's wrong! Don't you deny it, California.'

She was stunned. Surely they weren't so mad at her? 'If you don't mind my asking, this has to do with the Resorting, doesn't it?'

'What else would it be about? Oh, we decided to make you a special exception and like a Slytherin? That's ridiculous! Gryffindors liking a Slytherin.. it even sounds ridiculous!'

'Gee.. sorry. I assume Harry and Hermoine hate me, too?'

Ron looked pained. 'We... I.. I don't want to say I hate you. I like you, Cali, I really do. I just can't like-'

'A Slytherin. You can't like a Slytherin. You can't get over the fact that there is a nice, descent Slytherin, can you?!'

'No,' Ron said flatly, ignoring her sarcasm. 'I can't. That's the way it is, California. I don't even like it much, but you know that we all have to just deal.'

'One, what do you mean 'we all'? I'm dealing with it! I'm not the one babbling about some stupid, yes you heard me, stupid tradition! And two, don't call me California. You can at least do me that. You don't see me calling you Ronald.'

And without waiting for a response, she closed off the connection, feeling satisfied with her argument, bothered by the rivalry, and most of all, sickened with knowing that Ron thought she hated him, too.

'And.. I don't. I don't hate anyone. I hate THIS, this.. situation. I've gotta figure a way out. AH.' She stopped suddenly, remembering the vow she'd made at the beginning of term. 'RESEARCH. I've got to do some research.'

She was about to get up but soon cracked into reality and realized that she was sitting in Potions. She could not go to the library. 'Not now,' she thought. 'Later.'

Then she noticed that she'd missed part of Snape's speech. She still did not know what Potion they were making.

"So same groups as when we conjured Truth Potions? I think that worked out quite well.. yes, we will have the same partners as on day one of Truth Potions. Well, what are you waiting for? The Potion won't make itself! GET TO WORK!" Snape bellowed, sneering at the unbelieving faces, mostly Gryffindors.

Then he turned to Cali. "Why are you sitting there?" he asked curiously.

"Er.. I always sit here, Professor," Cali answered, though she knew what he meant.

"You know what I mean, Miss. Wouldn't you rather sit on the other side of the room with who you belong with? Instead of those.. Gryffindors," he spoke the name as if it were poison. It did sound a bit funny coming from Snape.

"I.. oh, FINE!" in a whirl of fury, she stood up, aware of the pause in the classroom to watch her actions. She teleported her chair across the aisle separating the two groups of students, Slytherin and Gryffindor. She then teleported her things over and finally, herself. Everyone's eyes were going back and forth between the now empty space next to Ron Weasley and the extra chair, cauldron, and person next to Draco Malfoy.

Snape smirked. "That's what I thought. NOW GET TO WORK! Ten points off for every group that doesn't finish a working Invisibility Potion!"

"So that's what we're making.." Cali mumbled, still fuming.

"How are you feeling today? A bit murderous, perhaps?" Draco asked innocently.

Cali glared at him. "No, I'm perfectly fine, besides that everyone, even Snape is making a huge deal out of me being in Slytherin!"

"If you don't mind me saying, it is a pretty big deal. No one has been Resorted in a long time. Though I don't care that you used to be a Gryffindor, you must know that no Gryffindor has ever turned over to Slytherin, and vice versa."

"True.."

Their talk went on, as they idly measured the ingredients on Draco's expensive brass scales.

"So those Gryffindorks are all ruffled with your losing points for them.. er, two or three drops of azalea extract?"

"Actually, five," Cali replied, using the dropper. "And yeah, they're all tipped. I mean, I'm the one with a freakin detention, what're they so upset with?"

"Perhaps... you lost them points and now you're not even in the House anymore?" Draco said pointedly.

"Oh! That makes a lot more sense.." Cali said, placing the dropper back down and starting to measure out powdered bezoar.

Draco snorted. "That's really quite funny. You lost them a bunch of points and now it doesn't effect you." He laughed derisively.

Cali nodded thoughtfully. "That must be awfully maddening for them. But you're right, that is pretty funny." She grinned. "Though I do feel kind of bad about it."

"Don't," he told her. "They're idiots. And they deserve it. They're stupid little Gryffindors and they're still being all unpleasant."

She rolled her eyes, dropping in the last ingredient. "Yeah, okay, they do deserve it, I definitely agree with that one. Definitely."

A line was already starting at Snape's desk. Before joining the line, Draco couldn't resist dropping in a scorpion tail. They got in line behind a tortured looking Ron and a confused Goyle. Snape ladled out some Potion and they drank it at roughly the same time. Within a second, both of them disappeared from sight.

Snape looked disappointed. He made a few marks on a parchment and told them to go back to their seats. The cauldron looked as if it were levitating as no one could see Ron carrying it back.

Cali and Draco both took a cup of their Potion, glanced uneasily at each other, knowing that it was fairly possible it wouldn't work. They hadn't paid much attention to it, after all. A bit intimidated with what might happen, they gulped it down together.

"Well done," Snape commented, making notes on the parchment.

"What?" Cali and Draco both said.

"Bu-but he didn't disappear!" Cali exclaimed. Draco was still standing where he was, though looking mildly surprised. It was obvious he could see her, too.

"Yeah, Professor, I can still see Cali," Draco drawled slowly.

"Oh, really? Then there must have been a slight mistake." Snape scribbled some more and sent them back to their seats all the same.

"Damn it," Cali said, annoyed. "If only we hadn't told Professor we could still see each other, we would've gotten top marks."

Draco agreed, and for good measure, made a rude gesture in front of Hermoine's face. It was strange to see her reaction; there was none.

"Actually, I know what went wrong," Draco said.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why would I? It was me, I added in a scorpion tail."

Cali glared and slapped him across the arm. "Oh, what the heck."

Draco grinned. "It was getting dull. Not my fault."

"Of course not. It's my fault," Cali said sarcastically.

"Better yours than mine."

At the end of class, everyone had reappeared, looking amused.

Leaving the dungeon, Draco called after Cali, "Cali! Where do you think you're going?" She was ascending the stairs.

"Er.. what's it look like? Going to class is what I was hoping for."

"Class is this way. Herbology, remember?"

Cali was confused for a split second. "Oh!" Looking embarrassed, she hurried away from the crowd of Gryffindors and after Draco. She tripped over her robes, in a hurry to get away from the snickering from the Gryffindor crowd. Draco turned around, caught her, and steadied her.

"In a hurry, are we? I know I'm irresistible, but _really_, in the middle of the hallway, too," Draco muttered.

"You'd be in a hurry to get away if they'd been looking at you like that," Cali retorted, flinging her arm in the direction of the whispering Gryffindors.

Once outside, Cali blushed, realizing that she had fallen on Draco. "Er, sorry 'bout that," she apologized.

Draco said nothing, but pulled her aside. "No problem, besides that some people might think you're seriously crazy, if not desperate."

"Oh, thanks tons-"

Cali was cut off as Draco closed his mouth over hers. She nearly fell over in surprise, but Draco made sure she didn't fall. Cali slid her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, and leaned into the kiss.

Forgetting her surprise completely, they were gone in a dream world, oceans away from Hogwarts. They were in such a state of enjoyment that it took awhile for them to notice that Crabbe and Goyle had caught up to them.

Draco reluctantly broke the kiss, but didn't let go of her, or let his gaze waver. Remembering that they were to be in Herbology, Draco and Cali led the way to the greenhouses.

"There's my promise from breakfast," Draco whispered. Cali giggled as they found the group surrounding Professor Sprout...

It was a few days before she got used to her new schedule, though all she had to do was follow Draco around most of the time.

It was now dinnertime. The Slytherins now accepted Cali and Draco, much to their relief. The Gryffindors had not lifted their grudge at all, if anything, it'd worsened. They still remembered Cali losing about fifty points for them and getting away with it.

Cali and Draco put up with it. It was easy for Draco to fight back the Gryffindors; he'd been doing it for years. But Cali, even as she was usually strong-willed, was torn. On the outside she was strong, on the outside she was fearless. On the inside, however, she was confused, angry, and most of all, miserable.

Their love had become both stronger and weaker at the same time. It was natural for love to strengthen with time, but facing pretty much the whole school, minus their fellow Slytherins caused their love to become intense. As for weakening, it was easy for them to get mad at one another in the midst of stress and rage, though it never lasted for more than a couple of minutes.

They still snuck out sometimes, for it was a bit less exciting now that it was easier to meet. For they were both free to use the Slytherin common room as a meeting place.

"You know it's hard to get out at night. Pansy snores so loudly, but she's also a light sleeper," Cali explained.

"Oh, really? She snores?" Draco grinned maliciously. "But anyway, I'm sure you'll find a way. You're telepathic. Surely there's something you can do with your mind to keep her asleep."

"Oh, yeah, you're right, there is."

They walked down to the Dungeons together, chatting with some other Slytherins. The conversation at the table left the Hall and continued into the common room. They were busy sneering about some Hufflepuffs that'd spilled Shrinking Potions on themselves in a second year Potions class. The group of second years were looking rather pleased with the attention they were being given.

"And this one had a shrunken ear!"

"Ooh, remember the one who got a shrunken head? She looked like something I saw in 'Strange and Horrid Beasts'!"

"Excellent," a seventh year snickered.

The Slytherins laughed about this for quite some time, when finally a pair of first year girls scurried off, giggling at the sight of Cali and Draco curled up on an armchair.

"We should get on up to bed, too," Cali said, getting up reluctantly.

"Yeah. Don't forget.. midnight."

"I'd never," Cali promised, leaning up to kiss him.

Moments later, they parted, to meet hours later.

**Midnight**

Cali tiptoed up the stairs, remembering her jacket for once, and would have walked right into Draco if she hadn't seen the flash of silver as he turned to face her.

"You're here," he said.

"What, you thought I wouldn't come?"

"Of course not." He smirked and they exited the common room.

Tonight they had no real reason for being out, they just wanted to feel the thrill of walking around at night, dodging Filch, Mrs. Norris, or any other teacher that might be lurking about.

Somehow, they ended up in the Great Hall, seeing that it was still lit dimly with flickering candles. They sat down at the Slytherin table, wondering what havoc they could wreak tonight. Cali's eyes fell upon the Gryffindor table across the Hall.

"Hmm.. we could enchant the Gryffindor table?" Cali wondered quietly.

"Sounds like an enjoyable idea. I've never done that before," Draco answered, getting up. They crossed the Hall, their footsteps almost inaudible.

"Now.. what to do?"

Both of them scanned their minds for a reasonable curse to set on the Gryffindor table. Draco, having a lot more magic experience than Cali, thought of the first idea.

"Burning Curse? ..nah, too obvious."

"Freezing Curse?" Cali countered.

"A good idea, but that'd be awkward. All those Gryffindorks jumping up, holding their bums."

Cali covered her mouth. "Yeah," she giggled, getting the strangest mental images.

"That's it. A Slipping Charm."

"Slipping Charm..?"

"Makes the surface all slippery. They'll be slipping across the benches, wondering why it's polished so well. Wonder who'll figure it out first?"

Cali grinned.

"Now say the spell with me; it'll be stronger. On the count of three."

Back in the common room, Draco broke out a bottle of butterbeer in celebration of their success.

"Where did that come from?" Cali was confused. A second earlier, his eyes were shimmering smugly, and now he had a bottle of butterbeer in his left hand.

He popped it open, purposely ignoring her, took a swig then asked lightly, "Want some?"

Cali nodded blankly and took the bottle from him. Moments later, they'd emptied the butterbeer between them, and though the alcohol level was fairly low, Cali was in no mood to go back to bed. Draco, apparently, wasn't either.

With a small amount of alcohol added to her mounting hyper feeling, Cali felt nearly drunk again. It was becoming a familiar feeling. "Wheee.." she said, plopping down on the armchair they'd been sitting in earlier. "We didn't get caught!"

"Nope," Draco said as-a-matter-of-factly. "There's a first."

Cali nodded. "Strange."

"I think Gryffindor's bad luck. We always got caught when you were there, and we didn't this time."

"Nice logic," Cali said thoughtfully, getting up and letting Draco sit down before sitting in his lap. "Minor thought," she said, snapping out of her loopy state, "we're not falling asleep down here. I'll freeze."

"Sure, whatever you say," he said. "Though I don't see why you'd rather spend the night in the same room as Pansy than me."

Cali laughed, going back into a drunk-like state. "There's a bed?"

"Then I'll join you."

"As much as I'd like that, not to mention I'd want to see the look on Pansy's face in the morning, no," she said firmly. "No questions."

"Fine," he pouted, and pulled out another butterbeer. "Maybe another butterbeer will change your mind."

Cali shrugged, grabbed it from him, and popped it open. A minute later, the contents were drained between the two of them. Surprisingly, Cali had just shrugged when he "carefully" asked again.

"Alright, then!" Draco said mischievously, starting to get up.

"Noo," she protested, not wanting to leave the warmth. This was one of the rare times they could spend time together without being glared at from any random Gryffindor, or even a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. "It's probably not a good idea to put us in a bed after drinking two butterbeers," she said, grinning.

Draco pouted again. "True as that is, who cares?"

"Me," Cali said simply. "I don't WANT to know what could happen."

"I know," Draco sang playfully.

Cali swatted at him.

-----

Heh.. not the best ending, but if I wanted to end this where I wanted.. it would've gone on for too long.

So what do you think? Still on track? I promise there'll be angst coming up SOON, I know now. If you don't like angst.. please try and deal with it for awhile..

Next chapter: Gryffindors' troubles with their charmed table, rocketing tempers, angst, and of course, more improvisation/surprises I come up with.

Review!

Angelee


	9. Spin what Bottle?

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Nine: Spin What Bottle?

By Angelee

Hahaha Missy, wouldn't we all wanna be Cali? Wheee.. I totally know what you mean.

But, anyway, hmm, I never thought of putting Voldemort in here... thinks Well, I suppose I could work it in... YEAH, and the plot complexes.. D Thanks tons to "oooookkk" for the idea!

-----

Of all the things they'd come up with about how the Gryffindors would show their hatred, they could never have thought of this one.

It was a sleepy morning. One of those mornings where everyone gets up and no one wants to go to class or even get out of bed. It was also a morning where the teachers are excited for no real reason and rush everyone to class. Horrible.

The Slytherin table was more subdued than usual, but that quickly changed as Draco and Cali informed them of what they'd done do the Gryffindor table last night. Their expressions seemed more awake now, and they kept looking to watch the Gryffindors.

"Oh, look at Creevey! His measly little body.. HAH, HE ALMOST FELL OFF THE END!"

The table dissolved into amused laughter.

"Keep what act you've got together, Creevey!" a sixth year bellowed across the room. Colin looked confused but extremely mortified.

The first few minutes, Gryffindors came in, looking sleepy, and blissfully unaware of their selves slipping steadily about. It was no surprise that Hermoine Granger was the first to notice something was up.

"What the..!" she wondered as she scooted back on the bench a bit and nearly fell off backwards.

The Slytherins had to work very hard to suppress a laugh in order to hear what she had to say next.

Hermoine looked down the long table, seeing other Gryffindors slipping about. "What's with you lot this morning?" she asked, though she was working to stay still herself. "Can't you stay still?"

Harry and Ron, sitting on her left, looking around and saw it, too. They whispered amongst themselves for a moment, casting suspicious glances across the Hall.

Then, Fred and George Weasley entered, analyzed the going-ons, and sat down at the left ends of the table, across from each other.

Fred nodded once to George and they pushed the person next to them. Ginny and Parvati had no time to react, and they slid swiftly into the person next to them. Ron and Lavender slid and soon, a whole domino effect took place, as several people on the right end toppled off the bench.

The Slytherins broke into uncontrollable peals of malevolent laughter. To their delight, even the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables looked amused.

Laughter was still echoing through the Great Hall when the owl post swooped in. Draco nearly choked when Seamus Finnigan's owl dropped a large package on his head, knocking him back onto the ground. Seamus was one of the unfortunate few that fell off the end of the bench.

Hermoine stood up, raging.

"Draco Malfoy, I KNOW you have something to do with this! I don't know where you found the time to charm our table, and that's very IMMATURE, if you ask me. In fact, I'll bet you snuck out of your dorm last night and did it!" she screeched, her hands balled up into fists.

"Immature? I find this all very amusing. Well planned out, too. I think your opinion is off this time. Sorry to disappoint you," he drawled.

"Why, I-" she was cut off by Harry, who grabbed her from behind and plonked her back down.

"Shut up, Hermoine. It was immature of them, but it's no big deal. _Finite incantatem_. See, no harm done," Harry reasoned smartly, glaring at Draco.

Draco just smiled pleasantly. "Glad you enjoyed it while it lasted."

"Shut _up_, Malfoy. I'm saying it's no big deal, but that doesn't mean it's okay that you did this. It WAS immature, mind you. And you know what? I'll bet you had Cali in on this. She was perfectly fine till she met you."

There was a raging silence. Draco looked furious.

"You'd do best to leave Cali out of this, Potter," he said in a lethal whisper. If glares could kill, Harry would've dropped dead right then and there. "I don't see why you and your Gryffindors can't get over the fact that maybe, just _maybe_, there's a person who'd choose me over you," his voice deadly with sarcasm.

Harry was enraged. He looked as if he badly wanted to tell Draco off but as the professors were already staring at them, he decided against it. He sat down.

Draco had been too busy mouthing off to notice that along with the usual sweets from his mother, there was a pinkish envelope in his mail. He and Cali had both gotten green letters, informing them of their detention ("Damn," Cali said. "I was hoping they'd forgotten!), but this pink envelope was unlike any other mail he'd ever gotten.

He handed the sweets carelessly to Crabbe and Goyle, who gobbled them up, and picked up the pink envelope.

"Who do you reckon this is from?" He turned to Cali, who shrugged. "It looks a bit like a Howler, but it's pink." He looked at it in disgust, then his eyes widened. The envelope was actually smoking at bit from the edges.

Draco gingerly opened it. Immediately, the Hall was filled with the voice of Fred or George Weasley, he couldn't tell which, and frankly, didn't care.

"HALLO!" a magically magnified voice boomed. "YOU ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING AT AN EXPLODING HOWLER! DON'T FRET ABOUT THE NAME - YET. IN ABOUT THREE SECONDS' TIME, IT WILL, IN FACT, EXPLODE! GOOD DAY! SIGNED, YOURS TRULY - AND WE MEAN IT, UNLIKE THAT MALFOY SCUM - YOUR FORMER FRIENDS, THE GRYFFINDORS!"

Cali and Draco sat, rooted to the bench, staring wide-eyed at the pink envelope.

An earsplitting pop sounded and the Exploding Howler detonated, showering them with soot. Astonished they were, and quite filthy.

Cali blinked several times, recollecting herself, then muttered a cleaning charm for them both.

"Aaargh.." Cali had had enough. She stood up, as did Draco, and they whirled around in perfect formation, facing the Gryffindors. "You," she pointed to Fred. "have no idea how I am when you get me mad. And I'll have you know, you really don't want to find out." She paused, adding on several layers of ice. "But with as far as this had gone, you're going to whether you like it or not."

"And add to that the anger of the entire house of Slytherin.. you've really done it this time, Weasley," Draco smirked.

As the Slytherin table filed out of the Great Hall, glares were hurled. Some of the Gryffindors looked shaken, but they still plastered on defying expressions.

"Mudblood," Draco spat as he passed Hermoine.

"Don't you call her that! You may be pure-blooded, but you'll never be any better than the lowest Muggle!" Ginny stepped forward and hit him hard.

Draco stared, amused. "Do that again and I'll hit you back."

"You wouldn't," she hissed.

At this point, Ron strode boldly in front of his sister. "I will not let you talk to my sister that way," he told Draco, staring hard.

"What are you planning to do about it?"

"Oh, you just wait and see," Ron said, and tackled Draco to the floor.

There was much cheering and snickering as a fistfight broke out. Cali looked most distressed.

"Draco, get _off_ him... Ron, you're not helping, either!" she cried, then threw herself in between them. It was a mistake.

Ron punched her in the jaw, and she staggered back into Draco. He steadied her, winced at a cut on his hand then turned to Ron.

"I didn't hit your stupid sister and you come and hit Cali? What the hell are you doing?!"

Ron, mouth open, looking too shocked to move, took Draco's cuff to his jaw. "Cali, I'm so sorry. I was aiming for Malfoy-"

"Next time, watch your aim," she said icily, glaring at him and touching a finger gingerly to her chin. Ron looked like he wanted to disappear on the spot. "And for aiming at Draco, you get this." She kicked him hard in the shin.

Ron yelled in further surprise. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he choked. He looked as if he'd start crying at any moment.

"Of course you didn't mean to." Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape had come up behind the mob.

"Weasley, Drache, and Malfoy. You are all to go to the hospital wing, but with all the apparent endurance here, I believe you can stay a bit longer," Professor McGonagall spoke. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, Weasley. Severus?"

Snape looked pained. No one had ever witnessed him taking points from his own house, but he had to do so in front of Dumbledore. "Five points," he muttered, glaring at McGonagall.

McGonagall looked sharply at him. "Honestly, two of your students are involved in a fist fight and you take _five_ points off? FIVE?!"

"Yes, I punish my students as I see fit." Snape looked more smug now.

Professor McGonagall glared, then glanced at Dumbledore. Dumbledore just shrugged. "They are his students."

McGonagall looked as if she could stomp in anger, but refrained from doing so. "Detention Weasley, and I will not take it if Drache and Malfoy do not have detention as well."

Snape nodded. "As you wish," he said, smirking.

"Now, up to Madam Pomfrey for all three of you. The rest of you, get off to class. Quick, now!"

The students scurried away, as Draco, Cali, and Ron started up to the hospital wing.

"Cali.. you know I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I swear. I would never hit you," Ron said, daring a look at her. Her chin was already purpling.

She snorted. "If I threatened Ginny, you would."

"But you wouldn't..?"

"If she threatened.. Draco, I would."

"Where if this all going?" Draco wondered exasperatedly.

"Sorry, I'm just saying," she said innocently. "And Ron, saying sorry won't help the fact that my jaw hurts like hell and it's probably twice its usual size by now."

Ron looked down. "Yeah, you don't have to forgive me if you don't want to."

"But I do."

He looked up in surprise.

"Man, you people are so thick. There _is_ a such thing as a Slytherin forgiving a Gryffindor. I'm living proof."

Draco looked disgusted. "And you could've blackmailed him, too."

Cali laughed. "I didn't think of that - just kidding," she added, seeing Ron's wide eyes.

Madam Pomfrey bustled out, placing them all in beds and went off to make healing potions.

Cali lay back, closing her eyes. The pain in her jaw was reduced to a dull throb now.

Ron, despite being embarrassed and in obvious pain, looked proud of himself. He'd managed to give Draco a cut on his left cheek, a cut on his hand, and several bruises. Though he had come off worse, he was still pleased. Draco noticed this.

"What the hell are you looking at, Weasley?"

"Nothing. You look wonderful, by the way."

Draco glared. "All thanks to you. And you look like someone physically performed the Cruciatus Curse on you."

Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Madam Pomfrey was back, holding three cups of potion on a tray. She handed one to each of them and performed some wand work on Draco and Ron's cuts.

Within minutes, all three of them were all patched up, though Madam Pomfrey still forced them to stay for at least an hour.

'What a bastard,' Draco thought, staring angrily at Ron.

'I heard that,' Cali said, laughing.

'I TOLD YOU TO TELL ME WHEN YOU OPEN THAT BLASTED CONNECTION!'

'Ow,' Cali winced. 'Sorry. I was bored.'

'This is boring. And geez, Weasley is such a bastard.'

'You said that already.'

'I know. I thought I should restate the truth.'

Cali rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, whatever. It's not his fault he hit me. It's actually kind of my fault.'

'So what? He should have faster reflexes.'

'Not everyone is like you, Draco,' Cali said, laughing.

'They should be,' he sniffed.

Cali's eyes darkened. 'They must really hate us.'

'Nice observation.'

Cali continued. 'Seriously. Sending that - what did you call it? - Howler thing and all.'

'I suppose. How much longer is this going to go on?'

'Forever is what it looks like,' Cali said sadly.

Ron was slightly confused. Draco and Cali looked concentrated on something, he didn't know what, and occasionally; one of them would glare at the other or laugh softly. 'Strange,' he thought.

'There must be something we can do..' Draco said, in almost a complaint.

'I started my research on the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, but I haven't found anything.'

'I don't care. I just wish they'd lay off for once.'

'Well I care,' she glared. 'And I'm going to find out. But there must be something we can do in the meantime to stop this all.'

'Hmm.. I can think of something. It's not a something I'd like but-'

'Bribery?'

'No..'

'Blackmail?'

'What with? And no.. not even close.'

'Then what?! Tell me, gosh, I'd do anything to make things better.. we can't just keep getting hurt like this. Sure we have Slytherin on our side, but it's still horrible.'

'Yes. And you'd do anything?'

'Yes?' Cali looked up curiously.

'Even... break up?'

Cali gasped, her heart lurching unpleasantly. 'I.. not that, I didn't mean that..'

'I know you didn't. But really, it's the only thing I can think of..'

'Oh.. screw this.'

'You said it.'

'You don't think we should really...?'

Draco stared. 'You were actually considering it?'

'I-er-no! I mean, you know it's the only way.'

'They're just Gryffindors. They can't do this to us.'

'No.. they are Gryffindors, but you must admit, Fred and George Weasley are no amateurs at pranks.'

Draco nodded reluctantly. Ron gave a gasp.

"What?" Cali's head snapped around, and noticed that Ron was still there. "Oh."

"Sorry, I just realized that you two are talking through mind telepathy.. I am so stupid.."

"Yes, you are," Draco said. "There's one thing we agree on."

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"Okay," Draco said gleefully, and went back to his mind conversation with Cali. 'Fine. I admit it. Those stupid Weasley twins are pretty good pranksters, for Gryffindors,' he added hastily. 'But really, there's no way they could break us up over some tomfoolery.'

'They're not just little pranks. We could seriously get hurt. What's the use of being together if we're in the hospital wing half the week?'

Draco half-smiled. 'Good point.'

The subject was dropped, but Cali was extremely uneasy. Draco was right. The only way out of it was to just break up... they'd definitely stop bothering them, and if anything, it'd make them awfully guilty. Was she willing to break up, even for a short time, just to put guilt jerks on? The thought of ever being without Draco was horrible.

Cali sighed unhappily. Life wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. She had no time to ponder this further as Madam Pomfrey came in and hurried them out.

"You're fine now, so get to class," she told them.

"We've been fine for half an hour, thanks for noticing," Draco said under his breath.

They stalked out the hospital wing. The Slytherin fifth years had Divination first class, so Draco and Cali trudged toward the North Tower. Ron went in the opposite direction - down to the greenhouses for Herbology.

Upon arriving in the cramped, perfume (inhalant) smelling 'classroom,' Professor Trelawney was once again at the door, ushering everyone in.

"We will be doing tea leaves today! Settle down... the future is at hand.." she said, trying to sound mysterious, but being too excited to do so.

"But we did tea leaves in third year," Pansy whined. She was absolutely no good at Divination.

"Yes, Miss Parkinson, but with the added knowledge you now possess, it will be a breeze to read them. This will be an easy class, yes, but one must always be acquainted with the future..."

And to much eye rolling, she passed out teacups., already filled with tea. "Just like in third year, you will do this in partners. Drink your tea and your partner will read the leaves for you."

Cali sighed. For once, she felt glad she hadn't been here for the last two years. How anyone could put up with this fluttery old loony was beyond her comprehension.

Naturally, she and Draco paired up. They drank their tea slowly, trying to waste time. However, one could not devote an entire class session drinking a small teacup of tea, so they reluctantly traded cups.

"This one.." Cali announced loudly, "looks like a sign of.. acne. You'll get a whole mob of acne next week. It'll be all red and icky, unless you don't pop them. Buy lots and lots of cream."

Draco snorted. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. Creative points for imagery."

"Thank you." Cali bowed to the snickering group of Slytherins. "How about me?" she turned to Draco, who stood up, holding Cali's teacup in the air.

"Umm... pudginess. In three days, you'll go on an impulsive binge and er, gain twenty pounds. You'll look suspiciously like Longbottom."

The Slytherins disintegrated into laughter again, as Professor Trelawney bustled over from her desk.

"Children, children, you musn't joke around with the Fates! You may anger them and your future will be most grim," she said fretfully. She whisked Cali's teacup up from Draco's hand. "Now, let me see..."

The class looked on, doing fake yawns and looking at nonexistent watches.

Trelawney gave a massive gasp. "Miss Drache! You-you've angered the Fates! They aren't happy with you! Oh, my poor dear!" she said, shuddering and whirling in on Cali, who looked at her with a dull expression.

"Now what? First, er, what was it again? Heartbreak? Erm, _hardly_. If you haven't noticed, I'm perfectly happy how I am.." she said innocently, and for good measure, dropped into Draco's lap.

He wrapped his arms protectively around her, winked at Pansy, then looked up angelically at Professor Trelawney. "I think you've goofed up on that one, Professor."

If Trelawney was at all offended, she didn't show it. She was now gazing at Draco's teacup, giving another large intake of breath. "Mister Malfoy! You've angered the Fates, as well! Oh, my poor dears!" she cried dramatically.

Draco and Cali winced. "Oh, yeah, poor us. With the Gryffindors out to kill us, this is just what we need! The Fates with their panties all in a bunch!" Draco said melodramatically.

The Slytherins resumed laughter. Trelawney looked quite huffy and looked at them with an expression torn between fury and pity. "Keep your spirits up and always stay optimistic. I'm sure the Fates will go back in your favour after sometime."

"Suuure.." Cali muttered, as Trelawney stormed off and the Slytherins chortled. "You know, Trelawney is totally fake, even worse than I though before, if she thinks we're unhappy. Sure it's hard having Gryffindor out for your blood, but we still have each other," she said softly, gazing up at Draco.

He nodded, kissing her on the forehead. She closed her eyes, feeling laser sharp flames shoot through her body as his lips touched her. She sighed deeply, leaning against him.

'Honestly,' she thought, blissfully unaware of the eyes on them, 'I could stay like this forever.'

'You want to spend forever with me?'

Cali jerked momentarily out of a dreamy state. She would have to get better control over her powers. "Yes, I would," she whispered.

"Then five minutes of forever," he said, smiling. "We have to get down to Transfiguration soon."

She smiled back. He bent down to kiss her, when Trelawney said tightly, "Clean on up, now. It's about time to get going."

Rolling his eyes and glaring at Trelawney, he gave her a quick kiss. 'Later,' he thought with a smirk. 'Seems as if everyone's against us.'

Cali grinned. All of a sudden, a thought hit her. She remembered a rule-- meant-to-be-broken from her Muggle school in New York. "No PDA[." She laughed aloud at the irony. They got up, drained their teacups, and put them up in a cabinet.

They hurried along, for the walk to and from the top of the North Tower could be lengthy, and one could never depend on the staircases, either. It was always best to get off as soon as possible.

The rest of the day was relatively dull. The professors all seemed to give the most boring, yet complicated lessons.

At dinner, Dumbledore reminded everyone of the Quidditch match that would take place the next day.

"Oh, who's playing?" Cali asked the table.

"It's a Slytherin-Gryffindor game," Draco said, grinning maliciously. "Always the perfect chance to knock Potter off his broom."

Cali rolled her eyes. "I'm sure," she commented, though she was excited. Obviously, she didn't play, there was no way she could've trained enough in Muggle New York. But that added to how the game interested her.

After dinner, everyone trudged off toward their houses, all laden down with a ridiculous amount of homework. It wasn't a good thing that the lessons had been frustratingly boring, for it was tough to do the homework. Not to mention there was a lot of it.

At about nine o'clock, Cali dropped her quill on her Transfiguration homework, ignoring the blot. She still wasn't completely used to using quill and parchment instead of notebook paper and pen or pencil. "What's the special case in which you will have to add 'resia' to the spell.. because a special type of toad.. er.. reacts differently?"

Draco stared at her, down at the homework, then banged his head on the table. "Ow. Who cares? This is stupid." He slammed the cover of his textbook close and yawned. "This is all making me sleepy, and it's only.. nine oh seven? Bugger."

Cali laughed. "Whatever. I'm ditching this homework."

"Ditching?"

"Er, never mind. Muggle term. But anyway.." she looked around. Most of the house was still awake. They all shut their textbooks when they saw Draco and Cali do so. "What can we do? No homework, obviously.."

There were no ideas from the group of Slytherins, till Cali burst out, with a wicked glint in her eyes, "Spin the Bottle!"

"Why? What bottle?" Draco said, looking around.

"No, it's a game. A Muggle game."

There was a chorus of raised eyebrows accompanied by doubtful noises.

"No, just listen. First.. we need a bottle. Okay, no joke, but anyways, we all sit in a circle with the bottle in the middle."

Everyone listened. Cali realized how ludicrous this sounded so far, but continued.

"Then someone er, spins the bottle and the person the bottle lands on is the one they have to kiss!"

"Sounds like fun," Draco said, breaking the murmurs. "Anyone got a bottle?"

A seventh year produced an empty bottle from his bag.

"Why is there a bottle in your bag?" his girlfriend asked. "Wait, I don't want to know."

"Okay, good."

"Oh, tell me."

"No."

"Now we get in a circle," Cali said loudly, ignoring them.

In a few moments, there was a rather large circle to the side of the Slytherin common room.

"Okay, anyone want to spin first?" Cali asked, holding up the bottle. "Aiee!" she squeaked as there was a scramble of girls for the bottle.

After a smidge of bitchfighting, Blaise appeared with the bottle raised above her head.

"I'm spinning first!" she announced, twirling the bottle in the middle of the circle. The bottle stopped slowly and landed finally on the seventh year that had provided the bottle. His eyes popped out, but his girlfriend was madder.

"Oh, come off it." Blaise was already across the circle and looping an arm around his neck. Grinning at the furious look of the seventh year girl, she tip-toed and kissed the mortified boy sweetly. He broke away quickly, pushing her aside, though there was a faint look of enjoyment on his face that went undetected by everyone but Cali.

Next, the seventh year spun, and the bottle landed on another seventh year boy. There were many grunts of disgust.

"Eww, okay, you can skip. That's just wrong," Cali said, thinking quickly.

The bottle went around and around, to much snickering. Pansy looked flushed from kissing a sixth year, who looked completely sickened. She rolled the bottle clumsily and it stopped on Draco.

Cali's eyes flashed dangerously. "Skip it, Pansy."

"Why should I? It landed.. fair and square."

"Since when do YOU go by the rules?"

"Since now," Pansy said, grinning. She got up and headed across the circle.

"Sorry, Cali," Draco managed to mutter before Pansy kissed him. She crossed the circle again, giggling madly.

"Arghh.." Cali looked murderous.

"Not a smart move, Parkinson," a voice called out.

Pansy just sat down, whispering to Blaise.

Cali crossed the circle after Pansy, and unlike the first time she'd told Pansy off, she struck out with her hand. Smack!

Pansy nearly fell over in shock. She glared, a hand jumping up to her cheek. "Now _that_ wasn't a smart move."

"Oh, but it was fair. I'm sure you'll support it now. And according to the unwritten rules, you don't kiss Draco, _definitely_ not in front of me. And the rules say that it's Draco's turn to spin and your turn to sit down and shut up."

There were snickers around the circle. The game continued.

Draco spun the bottle hard, causing it to spin for much longer than it had so far.

"STOP!" Cali, along with several others, screeched, unable to stand the suspense.

The bottle, as if following orders, slowed down.

"Hey, what if lands on me?" Draco asked. It seemed as if the bottle would stop right in front of him. There were sighs of disappointment from the females of the crowd.

"Erm, I guess you ski--" Cali stopped, the bottle had gone just far enough to land on her.

There were cheers all around. "Go Cali!" Blaise said, grinning. Pansy was deeply upset.

Cali grinned, turning to him, but he made no move.

"As amusing as it may be to see the looks on their faces, I'm not going to snog you in front of all these people," he said.

She nodded, understanding.

Though she didn't mean it, Blaise piped up, as if reading their minds, "It's probably a better idea for them to just get a room. You can use ours."

Draco surprised them all. "You know what? You're right. It's okay, we'll use mine."

And with that, they got up and ceremoniously headed off to continue what Trelawney had interrupted earlier.

Sounds of shrieking could be heard from below in the common room as Cali murmured, out of breath, "Draco, get off for a moment. I can't breathe. And your wand is poking into my knee."

With a dead-sexy grin on his face, he whispered roughly, "How are you so sure that's my wand?"

-----

Whoa, there. So despite the angry Gryffindors, who've shown their resentment by means of er, exploding mail, they still carry on. Can they hold out for much longer? Or will their love make it through?

Hmm.. I had a thought for a scene about a week ago. I had a bowl of vanilla ice cream (with chocolate syrup, of course), and I was writing my fic.. so you can only imagine what my mind puts together concerning the character and a tub of ice cream... wink So I've decided that if I get thirty reviews, I'll add that scene in. If not, I'll just leave it out, 'cause I don't really need it for the plot.. it's just a fun little thing..

Well, I'm dead tired, our band to give six concerts today as demonstration for the fifth graders.. ahhh.. I'm going to sleep. Haha. And we get to give six more tomorrow! What fun! (Note the sarcasm.)

So review if you want to see more subconscious workings of Angelee's crazy mind. Hehe.

Angelee


	10. Sweet Misery

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Ten: Sweet Misery

By Angelee

Oooh thirty reviews! You know what that means? It mean I'm adding in a fun little scene! D I could do without it, but I figured that if people like this fic, I may as well try and make it its best.

So.. enter a tub of ice cream. Not this chapter, probably next... XD You'll see. You just wait and see...

HEAPS AND HEAPS of emotion in here. And may I say, the majority isn't all good feeling. But, I promise you'll like it. So don't not read it if you hate angst because I worked very hard on this all, and you know it'll resolve in some way. )

-----

Breakfast was tense. With the current events, the school was even more excited about the Gryffindor-Slytherin match. The Gryffindor team had decided to meet early in the locker rooms, so the Slytherin captain decided to do so as well. "We don't want any reason for those prats to beat us, after all," he explained, scowling and whirling off, the rest of the team at his heels.

"See you later!" Cali bade the team. "Good luck, you guys!" Draco gave her one last kiss on the cheek and stood up, falling in step behind the departing Slytherin house Quidditch team.

Minutes later, too impatient and restless, the rest of the Great Hall emptied out and filled into the seats in the Quidditch pitch. It was awhile before the players flew out onto the field for everyone had arrived early. There were buzzes of excitement, as the Slytherin section of the field smirked at the rest.

There was one excited squeal as a second year girl pointed at the bottom of the pitch. The Gryffindor team was coming out. Flashes of red flew onto the field, then landed. There were cheers from three fourths of the crowd, though it was nearly drowned out from the boos in the last fourth. The crown looked instinctively, expectantly, to the door to the Slytherin locker room. Moments later, the door inched open slowly then it was flung wide.

A blonde head emerged, streaking across the field in a green and silver blur. Draco was followed shortly by the team captain, who was currently yelling at him.

"Malfoy! I'm the team captain, meaning I come out freakin FIRST! You go behind me, got it?"

Draco rolled his eyes. Cali caught no more of the words except for "stupid dramatic entrance", "lame", and "shut the fuck up!"

All fourteen players landed smoothly, Draco landing last. He touched ground lightly, as the captain stepped out to shake hands with the Gryffindor captain. The Gryffindor captain glared at his Slytherin counterpart and they gripped hands briefly but firmly, probably hoping to break a few fingers.

As soon as they stepped back and mounted their brooms, Madam Hooch's whistle sounded, sending every player shooting into the air. Draco and Harry rose higher than the rest, being Seekers, and looking around for signs of the Snitch.

"Going down, Potter," Draco yelled across the field.

"After you," Harry replied, scanning the field as Draco was. Neither of them looked at each other.

Draco just smirked and veered right. Harry, thinking Draco had spotted the Snitch, zoomed off after him, still searching. Draco slowed down slightly, gradually so Harry could catch up. Then he did an impressive, split-second u-turn, laughing out loud at the look of surprise and anger on Harry's face.

"Bastard," Harry hissed, pulling out of his dive and going in the opposite direction.

"At least I'm a clever one," Draco retorted, doing loops in the air. He had a lot of skill, though he used most of it on tricks.

While this was going on, Cali strained to see what was going on. She was near the bottom of the stands, so she had to crane her neck to see the action. She smirked, seeing Draco trick Harry, and winced as a Bludger hit a Chaser.

The game was going smoothly, there had been no violence so far, which said a lot, considering Slytherin was on the field. Slytherin was behind 30-20, though, so the lack of violence would cease soon enough. And cease it did.

A Slytherin Beater whacked a Bludger in the direction of a Gryffindor Chaser, missed by an inch, then in rage, reached out and struck the Chaser's broom with his club.

"Foul to Gryffindor!" Madam Hooch yelled, glaring at the Beater.

The Gryffindor Chaser took the Quaffle and shot. It went in. The Slytherin section booed loudly as the team cursed. The Slytherin captain whispered something to Draco, who nodded and sped off.

All of a sudden, Cali heard Draco's voice in her head. She looked around.

'Hey, Cali?'

'Yes?'

'I don't know how good your eyesight is but do you see the Snitch?'

'Er, yes, now that I look for it.. why? Oh, gods, you're not asking me to cheat, are you? Oh, dumb question,' Cali said rolling her eyes.

'No, I'm not asking you to cheat. I'm asking for you to... give me some helpful hints.' Draco winked.

'I won't, that's not fair.'

'Slytherins don't play fair.'

'I see,' Cali said, smiling.

'You want us to win the Cup, don't you?'

'Yes, of course. But I'm not going about it by cheating!'

'Oh, come ON. Stop being such a Gryffindor.'

At this, Cali fumed. 'If you haven't noticed, I was in Gryffindor for a reason? I have SENSE?'

Draco smirked. 'You couldn't be implying..?'

'Of course I am!' she smirked back. 'Now, look to your right.'

'I owe you one,' he said, changing direction.

Cali nodded, then shook her head. "Geez, I can't believe I just did that!"

"Did what?" Blaise asked.

"Er, nothing. Just something I did er, yesterday."

Blaise stared. "Do I _look_ stupid? Now, spill."

Cali smiled. "I told Draco where the Snitch was." ''Cause he's too irresistible. That smile...' Cali trailed off her thoughts, grinning like an idiot.

"Now I wonder how you were ever put in Gryffindor," Blaise laughed, contradicting Draco's words. "Wait. How.. did you tell him? I would've heard."

'Like this. It's part of being telepathic,' Cali explained, demonstrating.

'Like.. this..? Wicked!'

Cali grinned. "I know." She then switched the connection back to Draco.

The two looked up just in time to see Draco go into an extraordinary dive, followed shortly by Harry.

"He's seen the Snitch!" a Slytherin first year squealed excitedly.

Cali grinned to Blaise. "About time."

Draco scooped out of his dive, with Harry still trailing, though looking extremely put out. Draco was holding the Snitch delicately.

"YEAH!" Cali jumped up with the rest of the Slytherins, screaming and cheering.

"Argh.. Slytherin wins 170-40," Lee Jordan announced sadly. The stands began emptying of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs.

Draco glided around the pitch as his team celebrated their defeat of the Gryffindor team, and mainly, Harry Potter. The Slytherins poured out of the stands, surrounding the landing figures in green.

Cali ran out, leading a group of fifth years, and jumped into Draco's arms. "Took you long enough," she whispered.

Draco grinned. "Sorry 'bout the suspense."

They were too busy to notice the red blur go shooting past them. The Beaters, in their excitement, hit the Bludgers at the nearest red figure. Harry.

Cali whipped around, and saw Harry hurtling leftwards. If he wasn't stopped, he would hit the wall for sure. "Harry! STOP!" Cali yelled, feeling foolish. Unfortunately, he looked quite dazed, as one Bludger had hit his back, and the other the side of his head.

Draco snickered as Cali hit him.

"Not nice," she muttered, releasing herself from Draco and turned in Harry's direction.

She cringed, remembering the last time she'd done this. How unbearably drained she had felt, how tired she had been. When she'd saved Draco from falling, she'd fainted. Then a thought hit her. 'If I save Harry.. the Gryffindors will have to appreciate me!' she thought excitedly. And without more than a world-weary smile, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She obviously didn't have much time to waste.

"Cali? What - oh, NO!" Draco said, gazing, shocked, at her. It was too late.

Apparently, Harry was trying to stop but having been hit with two Bludgers must have some effect. He wasn't doing much good.

Cali shouted aloud, much to the concern and horror of the Slytherins. Right as Harry was about to hit the wall, he stopped. So did Cali's mind. Harry fell a few short meters to the ground as Cali dropped backwards, barely conscious, into Draco's arms.

**One hour elapses**

'Where.. what is this place?' Cali said, whirling about. She was standing in a circular black room. There seemed to be no one there, just her. Cautiously, she took a step, and nearly pitched forward. 'Ah!' she breathed, steadying herself. But it was no use; she fell forward on her hands and knees, a sharp pain radiating from where she hit the ground. Or was it ground? It felt icy cold to the touch, though, Cali wondered, surely there's no such thing as black ice?

For what felt like hours on end, she sat, alone, in the dimly lit room. 'Dimly lit..?' There was no sign of where the light was coming from, or was it light at all? She blinked several times, and realized that the light was in her eyes. Her eyes were like miniature flashlights. Then, with a lurch, her mind refocused. 'Where am I? Anyone here?' She spoke the last sentence, calling out into the darkness.

Then she was spinning. She felt a calling, and answered, wanting and needing for someone, anyone to come to her side.

Green blob, red blob, black blob, what? Cali jerked awake, all of a sudden reminded vaguely of the Dr. Seuss book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. She blinked several times as the 'blobs' focused in. "Draco?" she looked fearfully around.

"Alright, Cali?"

Cali turned to her right, and to her great relief was Draco. He sat down on the bed next to her.

Crowded around her and Harry's beds were the Slytherin Quidditch team (green blob); the Gryffindor Quidditch team (red blob); and Hermoine, Ron, and Ginny (black blob). Cali smiled weakly at them, a dullish pain pounding in the base of her skull.

She looked up at Draco, tears in her eyes. The feeling.. the empty, hopeless feeling she'd had in the strange black place. The feeling that she'd never see anyone again. A wave of emotion coursed through her, almost moving her physically.

"Cali, you alright?" Draco asked again, prodding her with his silver eyes, which sported an unmistakable layer of concern.

"Draco, I-I.." she faltered, not knowing how to put these horribly confused feelings into words. "I..." She looked desperately at him; her own emerald eyes layered with anxiety, mingled with relief and need.

He understood. Draco pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms securely around her. "It's okay, I'm here now," he whispered, knowing only a bit of what in the world he was talking about.

"I know," she sniffed, "Don't leave."

"I won't," he said, catching a whiff of her scent. It was still the distinguishable scent of fresh raspberries. "I would never."

--**Cali's POV**--

"I would never." His words echo in my head.

Thank whatever Gods brought him to me. It's strange, that if I'd never met him, I would've never seen this hatred, this disposition of the Gryffindors. Knowing him has brought me pain, but it's... it's sweet misery. [ What a difference.

--**Draco's POV**--

I think about what I've just said to her. It's true; I would never leave her for anything. I do realize that if she'd never come to Hogwarts, neither of us would have to go through this, this torment. But the truth is, I'm grateful I met her. I've never felt this way about anyone before. Pansy could never even come close. Close to HALF of how much love I feel toward Cali.

--**3rd person**--

The Slytherin Quidditch team was looking concerned at Cali. She gave them a weak smile and they brightened. Their Gryffindor equivalent was crowded around the bed that Cali assumed held Harry.

Madam Pomfrey appeared between the beds and handed Cali the same purplish potion she'd taken the last time. Seeing as Cali was more drained than the last time, Madam Pomfrey ordered her to drink every last drop of it. Cali nodded vaguely, gulped it all down, then watched as Madam Pomfrey healed up Harry's minor scratches. Then, suddenly, she got up and shouted to the crowd.

"These two need their rest, at least, Miss Drache does. You four," she motioned to Draco, Hermoine, Ginny, and Ron, "may stay, but the rest of you leave! Go on now, they'll be fine."

The Quidditch teams minus Draco filed out, purposely pushing and glaring at each other.

"And Mister Malfoy, if you don't mind.. I need to perform a charm on Miss Drache. I don't want it to hit you as well. I will not have you bouncing off the ceiling with the extra energy," Madam Pomfrey said.

Draco kissed Cali lightly on the forehead, lingering just for a moment. He settled into a chair, looking amused, and made a comment about the comfort level of the chair.

Madam Pomfrey muttered a variation of the reviving spell. "_Enervise_." With the combined forces of the pain-relieving potion and the charm, Cali felt and looked in much better shape. Her head stopped hurting and she was able to sit up on her own. "Now, I am assuming that you, Miss Drache, are in worse shape than you were the last time you did this because Mr. Potter here was speeding faster toward, a wall, you said? And I will advise you against trying this again," Madam Pomfrey explained and nodded at them, telling Cali and Harry to stay for awhile longer, then bustled away.

Cali motioned for Draco to sit back on her bed, and he did so. Everyone in the room sat quietly for several moments, when Cali broke the silence and turned to the bed next to her.

"Harry, are you okay?" she asked suddenly. She'd almost forgotten that this was all because she had decided to save Harry from smashing headlong into a wall.

"Er, yeah, I'm fine. I mean, thanks to you.." he trailed off uncomfortably, fidgeting in guilt.

"I'm fine, too," Cali half-lied. "Don't worry about me."

Harry smiled back. "I feel bad about it. It's my own fault I wasn't paying enough attention to those bloody Beaters but you... you didn't have to stop me, you know."

"Yes, I did," Cali said, smiling. "It'd probably kill me if I knew I could've done something instead of just sitting there."

"And then I'd have no choice than to kill the rest of you!" Draco sang gleefully.

The Gryffindors glared. "Shut up, Malfoy," they said together.

Cali couldn't help but laugh. "You guys must really hate each other. It's probably fairly amazing that you're not killing each other already, I mean, we've been sitting here for a long enough time."

Ginny cracked a smile. "It's the self-control."

"Right. It's unfortunate I have too much self-control at the moment," Draco joined in.

Then Cali noticed Hermoine and Ron glaring at Ginny.

"What..?" Ginny asked, confused.

"You're being civil to Malfoy," Ron said, gritting his teeth.

Cali stared. "That was ridiculous," she muttered incredulously as Ginny blushed.

Then Hermoine turned to glare at her. "And who do you think you are, making yourself look all great by saving not just Malfoy, but Harry, too?"

This certainly was a turn of tables.

"I..." Cali was at loss of words again. The peaceful feeling she'd had was quickly fleeting away. But this time, it was out of anger, out of fury.

"Hermoine's right," Ron said, his face taking the determined but pained look as it did when he'd accidentally hit her. "If you think that stopping Harry from crashing would get us to like you?!"

"If I hadn't done that, he could be DEAD," Cali found her voice through the nasty sensation of shock routing through her soul.

"A professor could've stopped him. A lot of people could," Ron said, gaining more and more confidence as he went. Hermoine was smiling approvingly at him.

"_You_ couldn't. And the professors didn't see what was happening," Cali hissed, then fell back to the bed, feeling deadbeat. But Hermoine didn't let up.

"I can't believe you'd do that after betraying us, going over to Slytherin! You want to be friends, do you? You sure have an awfully funny way of showing it," she said, jumping into the conversation, as did Harry.

"'Moine..." he said, in almost a whine. "You're forgetting again that I might not have the ability to talk as I am now if Cali hadn't used her own energy on me. She didn't have to, as I already said. But she did it anyway. You saw how horribly tired she looked," he reasoned, glancing at Cali. She smiled gratefully back at him.

"This is a Slytherin we're talking about! I would have done that for you, and you know it! I just don't have messed up powers like she does!" Hermoine said, appalled.

"Those 'messed up powers' just saved me. But..." he paused, "you're right. She is a Slytherin."

The shock deepened. Cali was beyond furious. "What the fuck, Harry? I just saved your freakin tail and this is what I get? 'This is a Slytherin we're talking about'?! I'm a Slytherin, so what, great of you to notice?! And because of that, me saving you doesn't MATTER?" she screamed angrily, ignoring the returning pain in her head.

"'Yes, of course it matters... but... do you know what I mean?" he said, mentally stumbling between their argument.

"No. No, I don't. I don't understand at all. I stop you from crashing into a wall, and probably saved your broom, too. You know what, it would've been BETTER for me to just let you crash. You probably wouldn't even notice that I could've stopped it, and if you had," her eyes flashed lividly, "you would just say, 'well, what do you expect? SHE'S A SLYTHERIN, AFTER ALL! A BLOODY SLYTHERIN!"

Though he looked as enraged as Cali, Draco could not help his comment. "You sound British."

"Shut up," Cali snapped. "As neat as that is, it's beside the point." She flashed a smirk at Draco then turned back to the offending Gryffindors. "I don't believe you. I suppose Harry's right in saying that I could've chosen against this. But I didn't. I chose the right thing. The RIGHT THING. What can I do that'll be good enough for you? If this isn't enough, I don't know what to say."

Hermoine and Ron faltered only slightly, but Ginny broke down.

"I'm so sorry, Cali. You did do the right thing. And I'm grateful for it."

Cali smiled happily at her. "Thanks, Ginny," she whispered.

Ron watched his sister, and sighed in resignation. "Harry's my best friend, and I could never repay you for saving him. Hermoine, you're my best friend, too. I just..." he stopped to see the look on Hermoine's face. "I just hope you can see how this all is."

"Ron, Ginny, listen to yourselves! You're talking about this traitor, this person who went from our side to - to their side," Hermoine said, her voice leaking disgust. "Do you really think she did it from her heart? A Slytherin would never do anything _sincerely_ for a Gryffindor. No matter what they say." She paused to glare at Cali. "It's not so hard to see that she only did this to look good. So typical."

Cali jumped up, startling Draco, and tried to think of a comeback, but she found that she couldn't. This was far beyond anything she'd ever faced. "I.." Much against what her mind was telling her, she seized Draco's arm and fled the hospital wing. She left a moment too late. They'd seen the tear running down her cheek.

She headed to the Slytherin common room, wanting desperately just to get away. Down the stairs, down the left corridor, turn right, down the stairs again. Blinded by tears, she stumbled on the cold stone floor. She sat down hard, letting her hair make a silver curtain around her, shielding her from the pain.

Sighing, Draco knelt down next to her. He pulled her up into his lap and rocked her as if she were five years old. "Cali, you did the right thing, even those Weasleys and Potter think so. Screw what the Mudblood says. No matter what, you did what anyone with sense would have, and that's all that matters," he said soothingly. Her sobs softened to some extent so he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the Slytherin dungeons.

Maybe it was because she was psychic, but Draco swore he could feel her sadness, her pain. It was a horrible thing, though, for she was radiating so much sorrow that Draco wanted to go and murder everyone who had to do with it. But he was stronger than that. Self-control, they called it, was often a helpful thing to have, but more often than not, it was utterly despised.

"Cali," Draco said tentatively, "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to, of course, but... maybe it'd be better?"

"Yes," she said, "I think it would be." He wiped away the last of her tears, as she began speaking slowly. "I don't even know where to start.. it's all so confusing."

"I know," he said gently. "Just pick something, pick any one of the many horrid things that've happened..."

Cali smiled weakly. "Today was the worst. I can't believe them. Of all the ways I'd thought they would react, that, I must say, was not what I was expecting."

"No fucking joke," he said in a low voice. "Fine, I admit that you saving Potter is probably better than not," he said, looking overly pained. "And if I think it's an okay thing... they should definitely appreciate it."

Cali almost laughed. "That's a very good point." Then her expression went bitter. "A point they can't see, apparently."

"They are so thick," Draco commented.

"Very," Cali agreed wholeheartedly. She sighed. "In that stupid parchment from Hermoine.. when they said we wouldn't like what was coming..? I didn't actually think they were going to do anything."

"You've never been more wrong in your life, I'm guessing. I didn't think so, either, I guess."

"And they're pretty good at it." It was Cali's turn to confess. "This is just unbearable. I don't think I can take another day of this. Exploding mail.. and all the yelling about you beating up Terry Boot, about me saving you and Harry. All this yelling is pretty much it. And there seems to be no way out. Gods." Cali sighed loudly.

Draco nodded, letting her talk. "But there is one way.. remember..?"

Cali looked up. "There is..? Oh... that." 'Breaking up,' she thought wretchedly.

"But that is out of question, isn't it?" he asked quickly, seeing her almost breaking into tears again.

"Actually, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but no... I don't think it completely out of question anymore."

Draco stared in amazement. "I expect you're right... this is getting a bit out of hand. More than a bit, if you ask me."

"And I agree. But... think about it.." Cali could not believe she was saying this. "It would shake them up, perhaps. But with all we've seen... who knows? For all I fucking know, they could act like they were expecting it. They could almost ignore it!"

Draco nodded. "It's a possibility. But..."

"It's the only way. It would make things better," Cali finished, heaving another sigh.

"And they'd stop bothering us. How nice that'd be." Draco said, placing his head in his hands.

"Oh, gosh, Draco, THINK. There must another way. There just has to be," Cali said desperately. This was all a nightmare, she kept telling herself, just a nightmare. 'And in a minute, I'll wake up and Hermoine will be giving me a 'happy two-or-three-month anniversary' card,' she thought scornfully.

"I'm thinking," he said, though Cali saw that his mind was on something else.

"Draco.." she said again, "I.. I know there's something wrong. And I know that it'll be better if you tell me."

He stared at her and laughed, almost mirthlessly. "Of course there's something wrong. Three fourths of the school hates us! You don't think anything's wrong? Of course. And now you're worrying about me?"

"How could you even say that? I know the school hates me, but I'm trying to deal with it. But you... there's something besides that, something you're hiding from me. How _could_ you?"

"You forget." He shook his hair out of his eyes. "Through all this, I'm still a Malfoy. I say what I want. And if I tell you, it won't make things any better. At all."

"I'm sure it couldn't make things much worse. Seriously."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that.." Draco said doubtfully.

"Fine, whatever, but you're telling me."

"Okay," he said regretfully. "I was thinking.."

"Yes?" Cali said impatiently.

"You know Voldemort wants me on the Dark Side. Even my father does. Now if Voldemort knows about us... he might use you to get to me."

Cali's expression drained of all edge. She shook her head and to his surprise began singing softly, "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll GO EAT WORMS!!" she said, screaming the last part. Draco raised an amused eyebrow.

"Worms aren't that tasty, you know?"

"I _meant_," she said testily, "it seems like barely anyone wants us together. _Gods_."

Draco grinned, despite the situation. "I agree with that. Oh, and nice song."

"Ahhh," she growled. "The song is stupid. I hate it. Now, did you have a point?" she finished, batting her eyelashes innocently.

"As a matter of fact, I did," he said, sniffing. "Before you interrupted with that ridiculous song, I was going to say that you could get hurt. Voldemort isn't an exceptionally nice person."

"No, you think," she said sarcastically, but looked quite somber. "THIS REALLY SUCKS!" she yelled, for lack of better words. 'There's just some things you can only express so perfectly in Muggle terms,' she thought, sighing.

"Sure," Draco said, looking fairly unsure. "But you know.. it's not a good thing."

"I know it isn't. Another thing we'd have to deal with..."

"We'd? We'd.. are you implying.. that we should...?" Draco didn't miss a beat.

"I... I just meant..." she trailed off, tears in her eyes.

"I know what you meant. It's obvious."

Cali made an anguished noise and repeated the phrase. "It's just not fair!"

"Of course it isn't. Life isn't fair. My father wants me on the Dark Side. It takes all I've got to stand up to him, even for a moment. And now, when I finally find something, someone to go to, THAT'S GOING TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM ME, TOO! That, along with free will. Gods." Draco sighed, not looking the least bit embarrassed.

Cali placed a hand on his shoulder. "Draco, I'd never know exactly how bad it is for you, but I can tell you that I'm not the luckiest person alive, either. I feel the same feelings you do. I'm wounded like you. I'm so much like you, Draco, and it hurts so - fucking - much to be pulled apart like this," she said, tears running down her cheeks. She drew her hand back, feeling nearly afraid of his reaction.

After what seemed to be en eternity, Draco looked at her, at her big, beautiful emerald eyes freely flowing with tears. He broke the roaring silence, pulling her to him. He held her shaking body, the precious body shaking with pain, with grief, with unmatched sorrow so strong. He held her for dear life, for the entirety of life. 'The meaning of life,' he thought, 'surely, the meaning of life is to live to the fullest and afar. Then why is this happening?'

-----

Wow, I've never written angst like this... Review?

Angelee


	11. Eternal Kindness

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Eleven: Eternal Kindness

By Angelee

Yes, it's been over a month since I last updated, and I'm sorry about that. I just ran out of motivation after writing about half the chapter. And as for the latter half, I had a sudden inspiration to write so it was finally finished. ; If you've been keeping up with this, I suggest you reread the last few paragraphs of chapter eleven because it's just been so long. ) And please review!

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"So.. what now?" Cali asked, sniffing quietly.

"What about what now?" Draco asked, sounding unaffected, though under that, was distinct conflict.

"I mean... argh, I mean what the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"Bloody hell, spell it out, will you?"

"Don't make me."

"Well, then," he said, "the world will never know a random going-on of California Drache."

"Pity for them. But really, what are we supposed to do now.. about us?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but at the moment, there is no more 'us'," Draco said, keeping his voice amazingly emotionless.

"Oh, hell," Cali sighed. "This is so... bloody retarded."

Draco gave her a funny look. "Bloody retarded?"

"Yes?"

"You don't use the adjective 'bloody' with a word like.. retarded." He made a face.

"Okay, sorry," she said irritably. Cali felt on the edge, as one could say, and she could break at any moment.

"Some strange American habit, I assume," Draco muttered.

Cali chose to ignore this. "But what _do_ we do?" she paused, carefully placing her words, "How do we act now?"

"Oh, now if that's what you meant.. you know, Cali, that's a rather good question." Draco had a rare look of incomplete understanding.

"I bet even Hermoine wouldn't know," Cali said dryly. "But seriously, we can't just keep it the same way, I mean..." Cali almost broke into tears again.

Draco put his head in his hands again, but made no move to comfort her. "I've got it."

Cali looked up.

"We're still Slytherins, so of course we're still friends, I suppose you could call it. But... we can't... we can't do this anymore."

"Do what...?" she asked quietly, though she knew she was just asking for it.

It was obvious this all had some sort of a toll on Draco, for he hesitated slightly, even for an instant, before leaning forward and kissing her.

He held her for what his life was worth. It was possible he'd never get to hold her like this ever again. Cali had grown used to Draco's style of spontaneous surprise but this was different. This, she realized, was it. According to the unwritten rules of love, this was the Last Kiss.

She poured into this kiss everything she had. She tried to rid herself of all the feeling she'd ever had for him, tried to convince herself that this was for the best. Against what her conscious was screaming, she brought up every shred of affection that'd ever entered her, but even deeper down, she knew it was in vain. The love for him, the part of him that'd come over her had settled itself around her heart and was holding fast.

Draco, who was known for defeating his emotions, was in a state of pain. The pain, the physical pain one felt when confronted with bottomless emotional hurt. This girl he'd come to truly love and given not only playful amusement, but true, sincere care. And for every drop of love Cali managed to rid herself of, Draco only filled it back up with his love for her.

The ironies of life stepped in at this moment in the form of Pansy Parkinson. Pansy entered the dungeon slowly, looking around, and her eyes and breath stopping at the sight she found.

Both Cali and Draco were unaware that they were both breathing heavily. Cali wiped the tears that had escaped from her damp eyes, as did Draco, for he now had her tears on his cheeks.

With a surprising lack of ice, Pansy spoke up. "Am I... interrupting anything?"

The Slytherin common room was in absence of sound. Everyone was at a loss for words.

Draco was about to say, "Does it _look_ like something's wrong here?" when Cali got up hastily and fled for the fifth year girl's dorm. Draco looked pained, but didn't call after her. They were, after all, no more.

Pansy, though a lot less intimidating without her crowd, rounded in on him. "Damnit, Draco, what the bloody hell did you do to her?" she asked incredulously.

"Nothing," he said in a hollow voice, getting up as well.

"You are horribly dense to think that I'm stupid enough to not see past that. I've known your entire life; don't you think I don't know you better than that," she hissed then whirled around, following Cali. And that was just as well, for Draco had gone in the opposite direction, to the boys' dorm.

Pansy's heart went out for the girl. Yes, she had despised the fact that Draco actually seemed to really like Cali, but if anything, Pansy knew how it felt to be hurt by him. She descended the stairs as she heard the door slam. She paused in front of the door, realizing she wouldn't know what to say. She heard a faint slamming of another door, presumably Draco's.

Gathering up her natural confidence, Pansy pushed the door open, stepped through, and strode quickly over to her bed, which was conveniently next to Cali's.

"Drache? You.. you alright?" she asked cautiously. "Cali?" she chanced.

There was a light rustle as Cali pulled the deep green curtains open a bit. "What do you want?" she snarled, despite her disheveled state.

"I.. I just thought maybe you'd like to talk about what happened.." Pansy said, feeling quite unsettled at the fact that she felt even a bit uneasy around this girl she hardly knew.

"Talk about what?" Cali challenged her.

"Whatever happened with Draco," Pansy said, as if stating the obvious. "It could not have been good, I know, but how bad, I don't. Just...," Pansy paused then decided there was no point in keeping things from Cali. "It's just that I know how it is to be hurt by him. I'm probably the only girl who does. Cali... you don't know how lucky you are to have him. I would give... so much to have just half what you have."

"Had," Cali said suddenly. "What I _had_. Parkin--Pansy, we broke up," she said quietly.

In a flash, Pansy was up off her bed and sitting in front of Cali. "No! Tell me it's not true. If you couldn't have him, _no one_ could. Tell me you didn't," Pansy said breathlessly, eyes wide.

Cali shook her head regretfully. "No, it's not like that. We did it because there was so much pressure..." Cali went on to explain how hard it was not breaking under the hate of the Gryffindors. She would later realize how unconvincing this probably sounded in the eyes of Pansy.

"Gryffindor bastards brought you down? Well, I'll be," Pansy said as soon as Cali finished.

"It's.. it's hard to explain. You know how it is to lose him, but you _don't_ know how bad it is when people don't want you together."

At this, Pansy had the sense to concede. "Um.. about that, er, well, you know why."

"I do. And don't worry about it. It's the Gryffindors that I'm mad at. What gives them the right to call me a traitor? The fact that I was in their house?"

Both girls scoffed. "And I wonder how you put up with it at all. I would have wanted out on day one," Pansy commented disgustedly.

"Yeah, but they were actually nice to me in the beginning. At least, pretty nice. They're just so-"

"Fickle?" Pansy cut in.

"YES!" Cali said. "Hermoine, especially. I have a feeling that Harry and Ron would feel a lot differently about this if it weren't for her." Pansy raised an eyebrow. "Well, you have to had known them..." Cali trailed off, seeing the look of doubt on the other girl's face.

"Yeah, sure," Pansy said, brushing off the building tension. "But can I ask one question?"

"Sure." Cali shrugged.

"Do you still love him?"

Cali looked up briefly before hastily reverting her gaze back to the case she'd pulled out. She sighed quietly, snapping open the case. "Yes."

Pansy's eyes softened. "You must have really loved him... to have done that."

"I did," she choked, closing the case a second too late. A tear had dropped onto her Flute. "And I still do. But that's what hurts so much."

Pansy nodded, gently gesturing for her to continue.

"If I didn't love him so much, it would be okay. It would all be okay. It would have been over ages ago and half the school wouldn't hate me and-"

Cali was cut off by a gentle hug from Pansy. Her eyes widened at this sudden show of kindness.

"I know it hurts," Pansy whispered, sitting down. "But you know that you wouldn't give it up for anything. This is Draco we're talking about."

Cali smiled weakly. "Yeah. You're right..."

And at this moment, the door burst open, and Blaise and Millicent strode in.

"Pansy! Where've you been?" Blaise asked, coming over, ignoring Cali for the time being.

Pansy shrugged. "Didn't feel like going to class."

Blaise nodded. Cali was surprised at this. No Gryffindor would ever skip class if they 'didn't feel like it.' 'Especially Granger, the bitch,' she thought.

"So what've you been doing? Snape actually looked annoyed at people skipping class. I mean, three people missing, even from Slytherin kind of ticked him off," Blaise went on. Millicent nodded.

"I can only imagine what ideas him and all those bloody Gryffindors got from it. Cali, Draco, and I..." Pansy muttered darkly, rolling her eyes.

"That's no good," Cali spoke up, looking positively disgusted with the thought.

"Oh," Blaise said, taking notice of the blonde. Seeing as she had just wiped tears off her face, Blaise walked over. "What happened? Oh, _don't_ tell me it had something to do with Draco," she said, sighing.

Cali could tell truly see how Slytherins really stuck together, as Blaise and Millicent sat down across from her and Pansy on Pansy's bed. "It did," she said quietly. Though Millicent only got the gist of things, Blaise immediately caught on.

"Oh, Merlin, Cali, I'm so sorry. Now you better not tell me it also had to do with those asshole Gryffindors," Blaise muttered.

Cali knew that at moment Blaise must be the brightest of the three. "Once again, sorry to disappoint you, but yeah, that was the main thing," Cali answered. Blaise looked outraged.

"Damn," she swore with feeling.

Pansy and Millicent nodded in agreement.

"Hey, what's that?" Millicent asked, pointing now to the Flute Cali had taken out.

"Oh. This is a Pure Flute. It was a present from my mother..." Cali explained the story of her Flute and the mysteries surrounding it. As Draco had, they asked her to play something. "Alright," she agreed. 'Doesn't look like we're going anywhere anytime soon,' she thought.

Cali played for them the same song she'd first played for Draco. The memories of when she'd shown the Flute to Draco came rushing back. Unable to go on, she dropped her Flute next to her. "I don't know. It usually makes me feel better to play the Flute... if anything, I'd say my parents charmed it to maybe channel my powers or something.." Cali said, shaking her head dejectedly.

Blaise nodded. "Smart of your mother. Makes sense enough, but it also makes sense that it'd make you feel worse now..."

"Brings back memories," Millicent added while Cali nodded.

"Now, Cali, would you feel any better if we went and messed with their minds a bit?" Pansy spoke up, cautiously bringing their thoughts to words.

Cali shrugged. "I suppose." She knew playing pranks on the Gryffindors wouldn't bring her and Draco back together, but it would be fun all the same.

"Right, then. I have got the wildest idea..."

Cali was once again astounded with how fast Slytherins acted.

**Thirty minutes elapse**

It had taken all of twenty minutes to explain the plan and ten to rack up additional ideas. The fifth year Slytherin girls headed off to Herbology.

Surprisingly, Draco was already down there with the group of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. He was only half paying attention to Crabbe and Goyle compare the sizes of purple dotted caterpillars they'd found.

"Mine's bigger! And look - the purple dot here is pinkish!"

"Big deal, and mine's bigger!"

"But mine's fatter!"

A long pause occurred then, most likely as Goyle processed the last few thoughts. "Oh, bugger, you're right."

Draco rolled his eyes but half-smiled as they approached him. Class wasn't to start officially for five minutes so there was time to discuss the plan.

"What are you up to?" He eyed them suspiciously. He knew the look of mischief all too well.

"Well," Blaise said, "we've a plan to get back at Gryffindor," she announced, ignoring a couple of stares from the Ravenclaw fifth years. "And... we need your help."

Draco grinned. "Could never make descent mischief without me, eh?"

"Oh, please," Blaise said, rolling her eyes, "I'm a Slytherin, too." Pansy and Millicent nodded pointedly.

Draco smirked but nodded. "Anything for the goodwill of my soul... the part that craves for the disorientation of Gryffindors."

All four girls grinned. In only three minutes, the plan was re-explained and they were all awaiting lunch time, when they could inform all of Slytherin of the plan.

Unfortunately, the excitement of it wore off after awhile, for Herbology was not the easiest class today.

"Today you will have multiple tasks to complete. Incompletion of the last part will result in homework. Besides that, this is how we will start..." Professor Sprout explained, as most of the Slytherins zoned out. The Ravenclaws paid close attention for the sake of their grades.

"And when you finish, report to me with your recording parchment and I will check over your work. The more answers correct, the higher your marks will be. Now get started - go!" Professor Sprout said.

Everyone broke off into groups, generally putting on the why-must-we-do-this look. Sprout rolled her eyes. "Would you rather be repotting Vicathorne Speculars? I need to get that done, too," she called over the barely audible grumbling.

There were murmurs of disagreement, then reluctant starts on the first part of their tasks.

When the class period was over, the parchments were handed in, bits of homework assigned, and the group of Slytherins was eager to tell the rest of their house about their plan.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Cali asked Blaise.

"Positive," she replied. "Any plan of ours is a good one. Now if we can just get the rest of Slytherin to go along with it, it'll be foolproof."

Cali grinned. "This is so going to rock."

**Lunchtime**

Cali walked in, seeing the space next to Draco where she usually sat. With a feeling of great uncertainty, she stood above the seat.

Draco looked up. "Well, are you going to sit down?"

Blushing and feeling foolish, she slid into the seat. "Er, hi," she said.

"Hallo," he responded, "so are we going with the plan?"

"Yeah," she said, breaking her tight smile. It was true, it was easy, even natural for the two to be friends, being fellow Slytherins after all, but it was hard to do so. She'd always hoped to stay friends after a break up but this time it just didn't seem completely possible. "Let's tell everyone else," she said to Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent, who had just come in after her.

They took seats across the table from her and grinned. Blaise put on a cute smile and glanced down the table. "Hey down there, listen up!"

A few heads turned lazily but overall there was no reaction. "Guys!" Blaise whined.

Cali was hit with a sudden instinct. "Hey! Yo, Slytherin!" she yelled. This time, head snapped around at the sound of her voice and in wonder of her word usage. Slytherin house, being in complete absence of Muggles, had never been exposed this kind of language, so the effect was satisfactory. "Alright, Blaise is gonna tell you our idea," she said, continuing in her natural American style.

Blaise blinked briefly then smiled again. "Right then. Now... er, this isn't that easy for me to say. Maybe this is for you to say, Cali. Or you, Draco," she said, then clapped a hand over her mouth, knowing she might have gotten the meaning across without meaning to.

Both Cali and Draco looked pained but Cali spoke up. "Well, it's rather simple," she said, then took a deep breath, glancing momentarily at Draco, who nodded slightly, "Draco and I broke up."

A collective gasp rose from the table, as eyes widened. Only Crabbe and Goyle looked around looking a bit bored, being they, as usual, had no clue what was happening.

Draco rolled his eyes at them and nodded, confirming Cali's words. "It is pretty simple," he added lightly.

Slytherin snapped back into character, getting suspicions.

"So," Blaise continued, breaking the evaporating silence, "we have a plan.. to get back at Gryffindor."

Evil glints coursed about everyone's eyes. Heads nodded in agreement.

"No one does something like this to anyone in Slytherin, especially not a Gryffindor," said a seventh year, assuming the truth. "And if they dare do so, they definitely don't get away with it," she added.

Blaise grinned. "You said it. Right, so here's the plan. Cali?" She motioned across the table, and the heads turned to the blonde.

"Now we all know that Gryffindor hates us almost as much as we hate them," she said. "So what is the ultimate thing we could do to mess with their minds?"

There were blank looks from most of the table, Crabbe and Goyle bring the worst of them all. But the same seventh year that had spoken up earlier grinned. "We use the element of opposing character, of course."

"You got it," Cali said incredulously. "We simply act nice to them. What could possibly tip them off track more than this?"

The Slytherins appeared to be analyzing the tactics, for there was silence. The group already aware of the plan looked around expectantly, observing many different looks. Of the many were looks of mischief and starts of perhaps more ideas, but also looks of doubt.

"So what do you think?" Cali asked them.

"I think it's a great idea," a sixth year said. "But one thing."

"Yes?"

"I see how it works, we be nice to them, and they're all confused, but that means, obviously, that we have to be nice to them!" he finished.

Cali, Draco, Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent now saw the little flaw in their idea.

"Oh," said Blaise, deflated. She peeked at the group around her and saw that they, too, still wanted to go on with the plan. "I see your point," she said carefully. "But think about it. Being nice to them is what they're least expecting right now. So the only logical way of taking them off guard is by merely doing so," she explained triumphantly. "And well, I don't like being civil to them no matter what the circumstances, but this time, I think it's worth it."

Cali nodded. "Yeah, same here. Just for a couple of minutes. Please?" she asked, putting on the poutiest face she could muster. She'd forgotten the effect that often had on people, and these being Slytherins only magnified it all. "Um... okay," she said, breaking the silence. "Let's do this, say, during dinner?"

At the murmurs of agreement, grins flashed over their faces. Cali repeated her phrase from earlier. "This is so going to rock," she said.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was rather dull, to say the least. The new teacher had gone out sick so Snape had gladly taken over for the class period. This was bad news for the Hufflepuffs in the class, but for the Slytherins, it made almost no difference, for Snape was not allowed to change the curriculum, he could only favour them.

Arithmancy was not much better. The concept kept them busy but it wasn't for the feeling of accomplishment when one solved a problem, it was complete boredom as well. That, and the concentration was a bit tainted with the building prospect of dinner's events regarding Gryffindor.

Finally, the last section of homework was recorded, bags gathered up, and it was dinnertime. The Slytherins mostly ate quickly, gulping down a fair portion of food, then looked up at the group of fifth years near the middle of their table.

Blaise looked down the table and saw that everyone was looking back at her. "Okay, then," she said excitedly. "Who do we go for first?"

"Weasley," Draco said immediately as Pansy piped up with, "Granger." She glanced at Cali but saw that the other girl had a different idea.

"Harry," Cali said slowly. "We should go for him first. Not only is he the sort-of leader of their little group of three, he IS the famous Harry Potter," she said. Cali felt kind of bad about saying this, for she really had nothing against Harry. She figured it was the truth, though, and knowing that he wasn't strong enough to stand up against Hermoine angered her.

"That's smart," Draco commented, getting up. "So let's go screw with their minds, shall we?"

The group got up slowly, inconspicuously, and one after another, moved towards the Gryffindor table.

As soon as all five of the mischief-makers were standing behind Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, strange looks started being thrown around. Ginny stared blankly at them, blushed, and looked down.

"Gin..?" Ron asked then looked behind him while the other Gryffindors shot confused, distasteful, or both those stares at the group. He dropped his fork as he came face to face with Draco. "What!" he said in surprise, dropping his fork and jerking in his seat in the process.

Blaise paused momentarily to pick up the fork, but Draco was quicker. He knew that if anyone could annoy Ron till he pulled every single red hair out of his head, it would be him.

"Here you go, Weasley," he said, smiling wide.

Ron snatched the fork out of Draco's hand. "What do you want, Malfoy? You and the rest." He motioned to the other Slytherins.

"Oh, nothing. Just had the sudden urge to display my eternal kindness," Draco answered, lip curling. "And you forgot to say thanks."

"Oh, than--wait, what the hell?" Ron said and in that instant, snapped back into reality. 'This is Malfoy we're talking about. Eternal kindness? No such thing coming from him!'

"Everyone is good at heart," Blaise said sweetly, then going with an idea that had just popped into her head, sat daintily on Ron's lap.

"Gah!" Ron said, pushing her off. "What the hell are you lot doing here? Get lost, will you?"

"Hmm.. no thanks, we'd rather stay here and enjoy some quality time with you guys," Pansy replied for all five of them.

Then Harry spoke up. "Well," he said, "we would rather you leave. Now I would suggest you do so as soon as possible," he said, glaring icily at Draco. "Especially you, Malfoy," he added under his breath.

"Glad you share my enthusiasm," Draco continued, ignoring him.

Cali felt she had to say something soon. The original reason for them even doing this was for her and Draco. Draco was getting some of his anger out quite well but she hadn't said anything yet. She looked around for help and saw that Draco gaze was fixed on her. She stared back for a fraction of a moment but broke the gaze. Being a somewhat talented actress, she spoke up right then. "Mind if we sit down?"

"Mind?" Ron sputtered, acting as if the words had come out of Draco's mouth instead of Cali's. "We certainly mind you standing this close to us, but sit down? You're joking."

"Oh, no, we really would like to have this dinner with some Gryffindors. You know... put the past aside?" Cali answered promptly, thinking of how nice it really would be if the two houses could just get along.

"For just a moment. Or perhaps, if you'd like, maybe we should just forget that we ever loathed each other and go out for a drink?" Draco added lightly, grinning at Cali and raising one eyebrow questioningly at Harry and Ron.

At this, the rest of the Slytherins could not help laughing a bit. But it had been enough for one Gryffindor to come to her wits.

"Okay," Hermoine started, glaring at each of them in turn. "One, the day we get along is the day toads fly. Two, we can't 'go get a drink'! We're only fifteen!"

"And I'm only fourteen!" Cali gasped in mock horror. "How could you suggest such a thing?" she asked, batting her eyelashes angelically.

Then on impulse, she flashed a wide smile, showing all of her teeth, at a number of Gryffindor boys. Mainly, Harry and Ron. Most of them at least wavered at her carefree gaze but carefully held their ground. Hermoine looked murderous. Then Cali looked guiltily at Draco on instinct, but saw that his eyes were not on her this time. She looked away, missing the irony that Draco was also looking at Ron and Harry, though his look was much more of a glare.

By this time, Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent were all nearly purple from trying not to crack up laughing. Blaise started back towards the table, not being able to keep a straight face any longer. After flashing nearly identical smirks at the Gryffindors, Draco and Cali followed. The last words that could be heard before the laughter took over were, "I never would have guessed acting civil to Gryffindors could be amusing, much less fun," spoken by Draco.

**Dinner ends**

The Slytherins retreated back to their common room, reminiscing about the fifth years' success. There was much mocking and mimicking of the Gryffindors as they all had a good laugh.

"He almost thanked Draco! They didn't hold up the 'thou shalt not act in a civilised manner 'round the enemy' moral this time. How clueless do they get?!"

"No joke! And did you see Granger? She looked like she was about to blow up; pity she didn't."

"It would have done us all a load of good. And it really took all that time to realise this was all a plot? How thick are they?"

"They're Gryffindorks, I suppose we have to forgive them for that much."

Finally, when they had all tired of it, it was off to bed. In the fifth year girls' room, there was still much giggling and congratulating of the genius plan they'd hatched in the very room.

"We are so good," Cali said, grinning. Though she was somewhat distracted, it was true. It had all worked out very well.

"I told you it was foolproof," Blaise replied.

They changed into their pajamas as further discussion of dinner's going-ons resumed. Cali tuned out of their conversation after awhile, her thoughts of how fully whole she'd felt with Draco at her side still lingering. For the few hours that she was without him, it felt, almost physically, as if a part of her had just disappeared off to where it belonged, which was, with Draco.

She desperately racked her mind for things to do that might calm her. For a moment earlier in the night she had taken her mind off Draco mostly, and split her mind between him and the plot against the Gryffindors. But now, that was over and successful, leaving her the space open for filling up with thoughts that had been pushed out.

Playing the Flute didn't seem to be the most feasible idea. Cali didn't want to talk with anyone at the moment and her getting out the Flute would for sure stir up some conversation.

Cali's POV

What else did I bring with me? My Flute... schoolbooks, obviously, but like most people, studying doesn't exactly help. Psh. Ah... there must be something else.

Damnit, Draco, why do I think of you so much? We broke up. So that's it. Over. Nothing. But then why can't I think of anything else? sigh I guess I can't deny that I still love you, especially to myself. Damn. This sucks. This totally sucks.

Wait... what's this...? Oh! My CD player. Of course, why didn't I think of this before...

Draco's POV

So, whomever thought being kind to Gryffindors could result in such fun? I never would have guessed, I still say.

It really was a brilliant plan, though. Leave it to those girls to think up something like that. And, gods, while we were doing all that, I still thought of Cali. I suppose it's not completely my fault she was standing right next to me but really, that didn't help things any. Gods... it's true, I didn't lie when I said this... I still love her, and I don't think that will change much.

Third person POV

Neither knew, but they fell on their beds at the exact same time. Draco snapped the curtains closed and immediately grasped for sleep. Cali closed her curtains closed as well but did not try so hard to fall asleep. Sleep felt so far away. She put in her earphones and opened her CD player. It was still the Michelle Branch CD. She closed the lid and pressed the On button.

The CD player was still enchanted so she was surprised to find that it was the first track that came on. Casting a Silencing Charm around her bed, she began singing along.

"Turn it inside out so I can see the part of you that's drifting over me..." She snorted. 'And that would be.. a fairly large part...' She picked up after losing her place just a bit in the last thought.

"-but when I sleep you're everywhere... you're everywhere. Just tell me how I got this farJust tell me why you're here and who you are 'cause every time I look you're never there, and every time I sleep you're always there..." As she had realized long before, she could often relate to song lyrics. It had happened again. The song applied to her life so much.

"'cause you're everywhere to me. When I close my eyes it's you I see. You're everything I know that makes me believe I'm not alone, I'm not alone," she sang, completely aware of the truth of these lyrics that'd seemed so simple to her before... before she'd come to Hogwarts, before this, before he happened to her.

"...I sense that now the water's getting deep.. I try to wash the pain away from me, away from me..." Her heart wrenched. She quickly pressed the skip button.

"Of all the things I've believed in, I just want to get it over with. Tears form behind my eyes but I do not cry..." 'Not yet,' she thought stubbornly. Her emotions tended to get the better of her these days. 'I won't cry.'

"...I still get lost in your eyes and it seems that I can't live a day without you. Closing my eyes and you chase my thoughts away to a place where I am blinded by the light.. but it's not right..." 'Of course it's right,' she thought sulkily. 'Some people are just too dense to see that,' she decided, thinking of a certain Gryffindor. A bitter anger and hatred was building up inside of her.

"Goodbye to you, goodbye to everything I thought I knew. You were the one I loved, the one thing that I tried to hold on to..." she sang, her voice fading away into a gasp. She then lost all control she'd managed to keep. Throwing her CD player off her bed and undoing the Silencing Charm, she collapsed onto her bed, breaking down in choked sobs.

-----

Yet another angsty ending; that makes two in a row. Go me.

And so there's a bit of the natural payback, but does it make up for the original pain? Of course not. What else is in store for the Gryffindors?

I'll try to get the next chapter out faster. Please keep reading and reviewing, it's a total motivation for me to keep writing.

Angelee


	12. Strawberry Ice Cream

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Twelve: Strawberry Ice Cream

By Angelee

Wow, I've gotten reviews wanting for me to continue, so you know what? I'll do just that. ) Oh, the wonders of motivation via reviewing, n'est-ce pas?

Now if you've been waiting for this since, well, two months ago, I suggest reading over chapter twelve first. )

-----

Though she had the gist of what was going on, Pansy tried and tried to get Cali to talk to her. She hadn't even known the former Gryffindor for long but with complete knowledge on her situation, she felt she had some idea how Cali was feeling.

It didn't seem right that the only person Cali seemed to want to talk to was Blaise. What did she know? Sure, Blaise was the expert on anything boy- related but she'd never dated a single one of them. Flirting and seduction were her game, not long-term relationships. Guys liked her; she'd never seen rejection.

Blaise had it made. Draco did more than just dish out sly comments to her; he actually tolerated her. The thing is, Blaise did not know how it felt to be so in love with someone so delectable, so satisfying, so perfect, and have it all taken away. So why didn't Cali go to her, Pansy? Why Blaise?

'I guess Blaise is an easier person to talk to... and not to mention.. Cali used to hate me... damn,' Pansy thought, putting down her fork.

Breakfast at the Slytherin table was subdued today. Though they had every right to, Cali and Draco were not talking, for it only seemed to make things harder. As a result, no one else would speak, respecting their pain.

Finally, Blaise, being a natural talker, spoke up. "Any ideas on what to do now?"

To everyone's surprise, even Blaise's, Cali answered. "I'm thinking along the same lines as before. We just keep going with our lives... let them see for themselves what they've done. If they're such nice people," she paused to the deeply dubious looks she was getting. "Being Gryffindors," she said, rewording. "They'll be sure to detect... misery," she said, finding the exact words she needed.

This bit of logic took awhile to sink in and soon Slytherins were slowly nodding.

"But," Blaise said, "this would involve being civil to them."

"I am experiencing déjà vu," Cali replied bluntly.

"And if it was hard enough even acting pleasant that yesterday at dinner, how can we do it for who knows how long?" Blaise continued, not hearing the sarcastic blonde. "But that was great fun," she added as an afterthought.

Cali shrugged. "It's not that hard. Just don't talk to them or something," she said.

"Okay..." Blaise said, answering for the table. "I guess it makes enough sense. They are stupid soft Gryffindors," she said under her breath, rolling her eyes. At this, the Slytherins nodded in agreement.

Conversation faded out again as breakfast resumed. It felt like an eternity before it was time to go to first class.

Cali left the Great Hall, ahead of all the fifth years bound for Care of Magical Creatures. Blaise trailed at her side, naturally wanting to be the head of the pack but knowing how Cali probably felt, letting her have some control wouldn't hurt. Blaise noticed that like her, Cali had that special thing about her that made people want to let her lead, to want to follow her.

Blaise took one look behind her to see if Draco was, by any chance, also following Cali and when she looked back, all she saw was white-blonde hair whipping around the corner.

When the rest of the fifth years, Blaise included, arrived at Hagrid's hut, they were surprised to see that there were no odd creatures in sight. Hagrid came out to greet the Slytherin fifth years, looking put out.

"'ello there. Now we don' have anythin' ta look at t'day. Dumbledore's tellin' me I gotta give ya a quiz'a some kind. So.. that's what we're doin' today. Hope ev'ryone's got a quill," he said, sighing heavily and handing out sheets of parchment.

The Slytherins looked around at each other, annoyed. Care of Magical Creatures had always been some sort of a blow off class and now that they were required for assessment, their tolerance for this class had gone significantly down.

About a third of a ways through the quiz ("Up to how many horns can a Stripe-Bellied Knocktus have?" and "About how many months pass until a Spiral Screenback hatches?") Cali had a random realization. 'My birthday's coming up. Huh..' she thought to herself. 'And surprisingly, I'm not at all excited...' She figured that she should have some sort of a celebration but had no idea what to do. Thus, she questioned Blaise.

'Blaise!'

'Huh? Who is it?'

'It's me.. Cali.'

'Oh. Uh, hey, did you get number seven? What is the alternate name-'

'No, I'm still on number five. But listen. I remembered.. my birthday's in a couple of days-'

It was Blaise's turn to interrupt. 'And you have no idea what to do. You asked the right person.'

Cali looked up and smiled slightly. "Okay then, Miss Know It All, what do you suppose we do?'

'Hm...' Blaise put down her borrowed quill and pretended to be thinking about a question though Cali knew that wasn't the case. 'I've got it! It's perfect. You and Draco should have some sort of a private get together!' she said excitedly.

Being that she was a bit of a romantic, Cali considered this. 'Maybe...' she thought.

'Come on, you know what might happen. I can just imagine it... meeting at the stroke of midnight.. in the Astronomy Tower,' Blaise said, her eye twinkling.

Cali rolled her eyes. 'No, not that,' she said. 'Something simpler. Maybe just a meeting in the common room, but yes, at night, like you said.'

Blaise smiled. 'Glad I could be of your service.'

'Thanks. Now I have to tell Draco...' Cali smiled back and immediately turned the connection back to Draco. She realised that before the talk with Blaise, she'd never closed the connection. It was almost second nature to have Draco at the other end of her telepathy, always there to talk to.

'Draco?' she asked tentatively.

'Yes?' was the almost instantaneous response.

'Er, well, my birthday's in a couple of days... and I was wondering.. maybe you'd like to share a butterbeer or something?' Cali asked, feeling more and more like an idiot.

'Sure,' he replied casually. 'And would it be rude to ask who else you've invited?'

'No one,' she said, cracking a smiled at him. 'But you know... maybe.. just maybe I might invite some other people, have a little party kind of thing,' she added, her mind starting to work. She had an idea. 'Maybe if I invite some Gryffindors.. it'll speed up the process of the guilt.' At this, she grinned.

Draco did not need to say his next words for his eyes said it all. 'You'd like Gryffindors at your party?' he asked flatly, one flawlessly shaped eyebrow raised. 'What a great party that'll be.'

Cali shrugged, quickly scribbling down an answer. 'I'm just thinking.'

'Okay,' he thought back doubtfully. 'Whatever you say.'

She smiled. 'Okay, then. Get back to your work.'

The quiz went well and they were released early. Cali pulled out of the group and headed up to the castle by herself. Blaise was about to rush after her, but decided against it. This was Cali's fight.

Cali sighed. A birthday get together with Draco and a couple of Gryffindors. The idea of it sounded odd in itself but it felt like it could make things work out. 'What class is next... oh, yes, Charms. Oh, and with Gryffindors...' she thought, ideas already surfacing. In a burst of newfound energy, she rushed up the stairs to the Charms corridor, wanting to get there early.

She put her bag down. The classroom was rather empty, for not even Professor Flitwick was in at the time. She looked around and her eyes fell on the chair she used to sit in, back when she was still a Gryffindor. How she wanted to reestablish friendship...

Surely enough, and as predicted, Hermoine got Harry and Ron to class early. Cali bit her lip. Was she really making the right choice in extending the first hand of neutrality? Or would the trio be too swayed by the likes of Hermoine? Cali shook her head, hate for Hermoine rapidly expanding. Ignoring that, she strode forward, forcing out the feelings of hatred and replacing it with her feelings of hope.

"Hey," she said softly, her face lit with a sincere smile.

"Hallo," Ron answered hesitantly.

"'lo, Cali," Harry said, smiling back. Cali saw this a potential chance.

"Well, I don't know if you remember or what, but um," - she felt horribly shallow for her next words - "My birthday's pretty soon and well, I kind of wanted to have a get together tonight."

Hermoine chose this moment to show that she was actually paying attention. She turned around to face the group.

"Get together? With whom?" she said sharply.

"Well, I was going to invite you three, but I guess I could find others."

Hermoine was taken aback. "Well, then," she said huffily. "I appreciate the thought but I must study for the Study of Ancient Runes Examination tomorrow. Shouldn't you be looking over Divination material like Harry and Ron? You have it first class, as a Slytherin." She spoke the last word as if it left a nasty taste in her mouth.

"I do, but I try to take things lightly," Cali answered, rolling her eyes. "So, Harry, Ron, would you like to er, live life on the edge," she rolled her eyes again, "and come tonight?"

"Sure," Harry said, shrugging. "Could be interesting."

"Um..." Ron looked uneasy at Hermoine's pointed look.

"The exam tomorrow?"

"'Moine, we don't have ours till after lunch. We can study then." He looked pained.

Cali sighed loudly, reminding them of her presence. "So I won't be graced with any of you three?" she asked, feeling extremely put out.

Hermoine glanced at both Harry and Ron and nodded. "We need to study. Bit of advice, so should you..."

Cali just returned the nod, resisting the urge to put one leg out, a hand on her hip, and tilt her head to one side. "Study, my ass. I know someone I can actually count on. Pity for you."

Then she walked off to join Draco and Blaise on the Slytherin side of the room.

**Lunchtime**

Cali was very glad to get out of Charms. They had perfected their Stinging Charms, giving one being charmed with it a stinging sensation. Sadly, Professor Flitwick was a bit out of date with the latest Gryffindor- Slytherin rivalry events, or he had way too much trust, because he let them practice any person across the room.

Naturally, the Gryffindors and Slytherins always split themselves on opposite sides of a classroom. Thus, when Flitwick allowed them to start practicing, the Slytherins were the first to shoot the charms across the room at various Gryffindors. Few, such as Neville and Hermoine, were unfortunate enough to be hit with several charms at once. And with the tempers of both Slytherin and Gryffindor, there was much feeling and maliciousness behind the charms.

It was not a nice scene to witness, even as Cali had her own grudges.

She hurried down to the Great Hall, ignoring the malevolent laughter of members of her house. Her irritation fleeted away as she saw that the one she was looking for was already there.

"Hey, Ginny!" she said, walking over to the Gryffindor table.

Ginny grinned. "Cali! Haven't talked in awhile, hm?"

Cali grinned back. It was nice to know she still had some others on her side. "So," she said anxiously, "I was thinking of having a birthday get together tonight... in the Slytherin Common Room," she said, figuring she shouldn't hide anything. "And I thought maybe you'd like to come?"

Ginny's eyes widened, but it was in happiness. "Wow, you're still thinking of me as a friend? Me, a Gryffindor, remember?"

Cali laughed in relief. "Of course I'm aware of that. And I really don't care..." she said, scanning the table. "Well, then can I expect you to be there?"

"Definitely." Ginny smiled. Cali was awfully glad to have her as a friend. Ginny wouldn't be fazed by petty traditions.

"And Ginny, you can bring someone with you," she said. "So you won't have to be the only Gryffindor..." Even as neither girl cared for Cali's switching of Houses, it was always uncomfortable when the fact was put into play. Ginny nodded in agreement and understanding.

The rest of lunch went by happily as Cali informed Draco of the night's plans. He was still off by inviting Gryffindors but figured that Cali knew best in her own battle.

**Midnight**

Cali tiptoed down the cold stone stairs, cursing the freezing weather of the Slytherin Dungeons during wintertime. Clad in only a tight-fitting black tank and black shorts, as opposed to robes, even the simple warming spell wasn't sufficient.

Reaching the entrance to the Dungeons, she heard soft talking on the other side of the trapdoor.

"Explain to me why we're here?" she heard a male voice ask.

"Because my friend is celebrating her birthday," Ginny answered, stressing the words 'my friend.' Seamus Finnigan was nodding a bit skeptically when Cali flipped the trapdoor open.

"Hallo, Cali!" Ginny said immediately as Seamus offered up a shy smile.

"Hey, guys," Cali answered, grinning at the sight of the Gryffindors. She hugged Ginny and even gave Seamus a squeeze, leaving him with a deep red blush though unseen in the dim light of their wands. "Come on in," she said, leading them back down the stairs and into the common room.

She couldn't help but notice that Draco wasn't there. 'He said he'd come, so he'll come,' she thought firmly, determined to maintain her cheerful mood.

They sat around a gray marble table, Ginny placing a tub of ice cream in the middle of the table. Cali pulled out a couple of butterbeers from next to her armchair and placed them atop the table. Ginny and Seamus sat across from her on a black leather couch, the one, Cali noticed, she and Draco had spent the night on the first night. Talk was a bit awkward at first, the Gryffindors obviously out of place and uneasy in the Slytherin Dungeons, but the three were soon laughing softly.

Cali was about to cast a Silencing Charm around them when a fragment of déjà vu occurred. She felt a pair of lean arms wrap around her and the chair nearly tipping backwards from her jump of surprise. Realising that the owner of the arms must be Draco, she whirled around to see his familiar smirk, those familiar silver eyes glinting in the fire, and because of their closeness, she even caught a whiff of his scent, a special scent that she loved but could never relate to anything else.

"Hey," she said, sprinkles of nervousness falling in again though her body was telling her otherwise. Giving into some of her instinct, she wrapped her own arms around his neck, breathing in deep, unable to keep down a sigh of content. She kissed him lightly on the cheek then smiled widely, showing all her teeth.

In one swift movement, Draco stepped around the chair holding his blonde haired, emerald eyed beauty and gently nudged her out of the chair. When she finally realised that he meant for her to sit back down, every last bit of uncertainty melted away and was filled with pure, unbreakable -

[A/N: did you think I was going to say 'love'? Well, guess again.

When she finally realised that he meant for her to sit back down, every last bit of uncertainty melted away and was filled with pure, unbreakable desire.

As soon as she was settled, a small package dropped into her lap. She looked curiously around at her companions as Draco spoke for the first time that night.

"Happy Birthday, Cali."

She looked up. "What...?"

"If I recall correctly, you said it was your birthday. Now isn't it?"

"Y-yes, but you.. you didn't have to get me anything!" she said, obviously embarrassed. Ginny and Seamus also appeared embarrassed, as neither had thought to bring a gift.

Draco shrugged. "Well, I do have manners."

Cali did not hear his last comment, as her green eyes were wide as she slowly opened the package. When the wrapping was off, it was obvious that it was a jewelry box. Seamus was looking quite interested as Ginny was winking at Cali. After another surprised glance from Cali to Draco, the lid was lifted. This action followed up shortly with a gasp.

Inside the black velvet box was a necklace that bore a startling resemblance to the one Cali'd always wished to own: a silver dragon with a green jewel as the eye, strung on a black string. But being a gift from Draco Malfoy, it had to be of highest quality. The dragon was made of solid silver, causing a bit of weight, the eye was an emerald, and the chain was strong fine black leather.

Seeing as Cali was temporarily speechless, Draco smiled approvingly and lifted the necklace out of the box. He looped it around her neck and closed the clasp.

"Turn around," he whispered. Still gazing at her necklace, she did so and faced him questioningly. Draco awarded her a smirk that was half a genuine smile. It seemed like only Cali could get a true smile out of him. "It looks beautiful on you," he pronounced. Cali smiled.

She saw that the necklace hung directly over her heart. 'It's like the weight of love...' "Thank you," she whispered, forgetting that Ginny and Seamus, now straining to hear her words, were sitting across from her.

Draco half-smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead. Then, he promptly dropped the subject. "Now are you going to stare at me all night or are we here to celebrate your turning fifteen?" he smirked. "I can understand your interest but it would get all too dull for me."

Cali blushed, gave him a fleeting look and turned to Ginny and Seamus. "Sorry for ignoring you guys," she said, looking ashamed.

"It's okay," Ginny said brightly, grabbing a butterbeer and popping it open. Seamus immediately snatched it from her and took a swig. "Seamus! Get your own!" she scolded.

"Why don't you?" he said, then picking up another bottle and handing it to her.

Ginny rolled her eyes as she accepted the bottle. Then, on random impulse, she threw it across the table. Cali gasped and ducked as Draco caught it expertly, two inches from his face.

"Not too off on your aim, Weasley," Draco said, using two delicate fingers to pop open the bottle. Ginny giggled, rolling her eyes though it now seemed that all four were starting to get hyper.

It didn't help that there was butterbeer present. Though Cali had only gotten hold of ten bottles, an average of 2-3 bottles per person, all four looked at least slightly drunk when the last of the bottles had been finished off. Draco, having the highest tolerance of alcohol, was the first to realise that they were hopelessly neglecting the tub of ice cream Ginny had brought along.

Shrugging, he snatched it off the table and tapped the insulating lid, which then disappeared with a smokeless puff. He scooped a small amount of the cold, creamy substance into a finger and licked it slowly, deliberately while Cali stared, mesmerized, blinked, then shook her head. "Mm.. strawberry," he commented, then placed the tub back on the table. Bad idea.

Almost immediately, Cali grabbed it back off and dipped her own finger in the ice cream, creating another trail in the now-imperfect ice cream. "Strawberry," she said, nodding happily. Then on a sudden thought, and glance at the ice cream, she looked up and grinned. "Have you ever considered dying your hair light pink?"

"Only when I'm drunk and manic," he replied shortly. Cali submitted a tipsy sounding giggle, confirming that she was in fact, drunk AND hyper. "I shouldn't allow you more sugar," he said, noting the ice cream she was licking off her fingers.

"But I like it," she said simply, continuing to consume the ice cream with her fingers. "Strawberry ice cream always makes me happy." Draco sighed at the mess she was making and at how very drunk she was.

He looked across the table, which now felt like a barrier. It was just like in classes they had with other students of other Houses, as the classroom was always split in two, one side for each House. And now, there was a table, nothing so significant, which was separating them.

He stared across at the two Gryffindors, which, at the moment, were off in their own world, as he and Cali had been in theirs. He blinked. He didn't know Gryffindors could have fun like Slytherins could. Then again, Slytherins could have a lot more fun than this, especially in large groups...

He shrugged and decided to ruin their moment. He scooped up a fair amount of ice cream from the tub and flung it across the table. The blob landed just past the stone barrier, on Seamus' arm.

Seamus looked sideways at the sudden spot of iciness on his arm. He first put on a show of licking it off for Ginny, then glared at Draco.

"Malfoy, why the hell did you just fling ice cream at me?" he demanded, sounding very silly indeed. Draco noticed this immediately and laughed aloud.

"No reason, Finnigan," he responded. Then he looked down at Cali to see that she was still licking ice cream off her fingers. He tried not to stare, knowing that he was not to be seen staring at a girl licking her fingers, even a girl like Cali, in front of Gryffindors. He grabbed the tub from her and placed it back on the table. "That's more than enough sugar for you," he announced. Then, on a sudden idea, he took hold of one of her hands and licked the remaining ice cream off her fingers. Cali giggled but let him continue.

Then, quite unexpectedly, a lob of ice cream flew at them and hit Draco on the cheek. He dropped Cali's hand and glowered across the table. The barrier feeling was quickly disappearing.

Draco put on his own show of wiping the ice cream from his cheek and licking it slowly, leisurely, off each of his long, thin fingers. The still-drunk Cali could not help but gasp appreciatively.

The night went on, with a mischievous competition between Draco and Seamus, but quite surprisingly, never with malicious motives. Cali and Ginny watched them for some time, cheering them on. After they tired of the guys' silly antics Cali started showing off her powers and making designs in the air with sparkling lights shooting out of her finger. It took the guys awhile to notice the shimmering designs that soon filled the space around them.

Draco took Cali's hand and wrote out "Happy Birthday, sexy" and while Cali was busy giggling, he quickly added "(Seamus wishes someone would say that to him someday)". Cali quickly erased it with a whirl of her hand but not before the others caught sight of it. Seamus tackled Draco to the ground and Cali slapped her forehead. She quickly levitated Seamus into the air before the fight turned nasty.

"I was kidding, Finnigan," Draco added, smirking as Seamus rose three feet above the stone floor.

"What should I do now?" Cali asked mischievously, turning to Ginny.

"Hey, unfair advantage!" Seamus yelled indignantly.

Cali moved him above a couch, closer to where she'd cast the Silencing Charm, just in case. Then, she used her other hand to levitate Ginny into the air, causing a sudden squeal.

"Cali!" Ginny said, looking about as she moved above the same couch as Seamus.

Cali just turned to Draco, gave him a questioning look, and he nodded slowly. They appeared to be talking telepathically.

Then Cali turned back to Seamus and Ginny. She first let Seamus drop to the couch, allowed for the Gryffindors to realise what was going on, then let Ginny drop into Seamus' lap.

Seamus was not going to be beat.

He immediately put his arms around Ginny and kissed her. Ginny's eyes widened for a moment then she gave in. Cali grinned at the two, then at Draco, but she saw something else in his eyes.

Draco was not to be beat by anyone, either.

He grabbed Cali by the waist, led her to the edge of the couch and laid her down. "In," - he kissed her - "honour," - he kissed her again - "of your birthday," - another kiss - "and of course," - another kiss - "for MY own good," - another, longer kiss - "I give you," - he kissed her again - "fifteen kisses." Then he stopped. "How many was that, six, I think? Well, then, nine more."

But Cali surprised him by grabbing him around the neck and kissing him hard. Being Draco, he, well, he would not be beat. He covered her body with his own and kissed her back. This went on for awhile, most definitely past eight more kisses, as both pairs forgot the other was even there.

Seamus and Ginny's acts of desire ended first. They stared at Draco and Cali for a moment, then at each other, then at Draco and Cali again.

"So this is what Slytherins do in their spare time," Seamus commenting, eyebrows raised.

Ginny nodded dumbly, seeing this whole new side of her friend.

It wasn't too long before Cali and Draco were forced to stop, bound by the limits of the human need of oxygen.

Draco gazed into her eyes. Those normally bright emeralds were now glazed over with one thing, he knew. The feeling could go so far to drive you to the edge of your remaining sanity. That feeling, that look in her eyes, was lust.

Cali smiled, then pushed him away, letting herself sit up. "Hi."

"Hel_lo_," Ginny said, grinning. "Go Cali!"

Cali's smile evolved to a grin. "Hey, right back at 'cha." She suddenly looked at the clock above them. "Whoa, dude, it's almost one already!" Her grin turned into a sad smile. "I don't want you two to leave," she said to Ginny and Seamus.

Everyone else turned to face the clock, which indeed, read 12:49. With a hazy greenish backing, black metal serpents that moved around the edges, and the hands of the clock being silver snakes, it was distinctly Slytherin.

"Well, we should be getting back," Ginny said, an identical look of regret on her face.

"Alright then," Cali said. "You guys probably need to go study for the Divination Examination," she added as an afterthought. She laughed.

"See you tomorrow at breakfast," Ginny said, and she and Seamus left through the trapdoor.

Draco then started twirling a strand of Cali's hair around his finger. "Now that they're gone..." he started.

Cali held his hand still. "You act like you didn't enjoy that at all," she said, staring questioningly.

Draco shrugged. "Gryffindors don't add much excitement to parties," he said offhandedly.

Cali rolled her eyes. "Right, and you still engaged in a 'competition' with Seamus," she said pointedly.

He shrugged again. "So maybe it was interesting but I like it better with just you." He stared down into her eyes.

Cali smiled, her feelings of restlessness waning. "So what do you suggest we do now?"

"I have something for you," he said, reaching in a pocket.

"What? Something else?" she said incredulously.

"It's just parchment and ink," he said, and drew it out. "Here." He handed it to her.

She gazed over its contents. It was a list of ingredients and instructions for a potion, all written in Draco's neat, articulate handwriting. He must have searched for it. Then she read what the potion was for. "Connection of Eternity?" she asked. "Sounds dodgy."

He laughed. "A bit," he agreed. "Read what it is," he instructed.

She read inside their open connection. 'Two minds will be forever fused. One may never break apart from another without the counterpotion. But that will separate them perpetually; they will never be connected like before.' She glanced up, surprised.

'So,' Draco spoke in the connection. 'This will always be open, no matter what. And I think you could probably open the kind of connection we have now to someone else.'

Cali was still surprised. "Wow," she whispered, still glancing over the parchment. "Would you want this?" she asked, waving the paper.

"If you want it. Do you?"

"I do," she said slowly.

"Then he looked up, mischief playing across his faintly lit features. "You'll marry me?"

It took her a moment to realise what she's just said. "No! Not that!" she said in shock. "Oh, I mean, um, wait, I... ah..."

"I know what you meant," he said, smirking and pulling her into his lap. Then his voice softened. "I didn't want this to happen while they were still here," he said, playing with a strand of her hair again.

She nodded, understanding, and overwhelmed by his sweetness. "Thanks," she whispered.

Then, the two sat in near silence, random bits of discussion occurring at random times.

"So.. you still feel the same way?" Cali asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"I love like I always have," he whispered, painfully sincerely.

Tears of happiness, but of unfulfilled happiness, brimmed in her eyes.

"Shh," he said as she buried her face into his shoulder. "So we let them get the best of us but it's not changing our feelings. So.. er.. they really haven't broken us up, in a sense. If that makes you feel any better..." Draco said.

Cali sniffled quietly and leaned back against him. "I'm going to sound about half my age saying this, but it's NOT FAIR. Just 'cause I was once a Gryffindor, and now I'm not, I'm a traitor? Big deal? They are going so overboard. And just because they've hated you for God knows how long, they hate us even more?! What the hell?"

Draco shrugged. "Yeah. It's total bull but... we can't change all their minds. We've hated each other for a very long time." He smiled weakly.

Cali looked determined. "I think we can. I feel like I'm getting closer with the research on the rivalry crap; I'm bound to find something soon. And God!" She was struck by another thought. "I can't even go to the Yule Ball with you!"

Draco's eyes widened at the thought, but even at the realization, he was still himself. "Pity for you," he smirked.

Cali rolled her eyes. She spasm of hyper feeling as a rather silly thought hit.

"I just had another thought."

"Yes?"

"Well, it's kind of stupid."

Draco rolled his eyes. "If you're starting to feel drunk again, anything you say right now has a very high chance of being stupid."

"Well, I was wondering how you'd taste right now."

Draco stared. "Are you _still_ drunk?" This girl had ridiculously low tolerance for alcohol. But with further processing of her thought, he smirked. "Care to finish your thought?" he said, eyes flashing seductively.

"Sure," she said, mirroring his look. The next bout of snogging lasted much longer than expected. Cali was all too delighted that he tasted like strawberry ice cream.

-----

And after two months, that is what I give you. You owe this all to the second book because I randomly took a book off my shelf last night and started reading it... and inspiration struck to keep writing. I actually wrote the prologue to the sequel or this fic, too. Which is kind of funny being that this one isn't even too close to being finished. But it's getting there! I'm determined to finish this over summer vacation - yes, no more school for me!!

Which means writing, writing, and writing. I have SO many unwritten or unfinished ideas!

Review, please! As you know, reviews go a long way in getting my chapters out quicker.

Angelee


	13. Bubbles and Foghorns

Single Sweet Soul  
Chapter Thirteen: Bubbles and Foghorns

By Angelee

-----

Cali awoke with a dull pain in the back of her head. "Oww!" she moaned, sitting up.

"What happened, Cali?" Blaise asked, sliding the curtains open.

The familiar silverish light streamed across her bed as she scrunched her forehead up. She was all of a sudden very glad to be out of Gryffindor, for the light there was often a bright, golden yellow. Faint silver light, she could barely deal with right now.

"Damn alcohol. I'm never drinking again," she said.

"That's what they always say on the morning after!" Blaise said cheerfully, smirking as well, as Pansy and Millicent looked curiously on.

"Ri-i-ight," Cali said, and started pulling on a black tank.

"So," Blaise said, sitting down next to Cali's standing position. "How was Draco last night?"

Pansy and Millicent's eyes widened significantly as Cali coughed loudly. "_What_?"

"How'd your party go, I mean?" Blaise smirked.

"Oh, that," she said, memories rushing in, and adding to her rising headache. "It was nice," she said, grinning, and reminiscing on the night's events.

--**Flashback**--

Then Cali turned back to Seamus and Ginny. She first let Seamus drop to the couch, allowed for the Gryffindors to realise what was going on, then let Ginny drop into Seamus' lap.

Seamus was not going to be beat.

He immediately put his arms around Ginny and kissed her. Ginny's eyes widened for a moment then she gave in to her own desires. Cali grinned at the two, then at Draco, but she saw something else in his eyes.

Draco was not to be beat by anyone, either.

He grabbed Cali by the waist, led her to the edge of the couch and laid her down. "In," – he kissed her – "honour," – he kissed her again – "of your birthday," – another kiss – "and of course," – another kiss – "for _my_ own good," – another, longer kiss – "I shall give to you," – he kissed her again – "fifteen kisses." Then he stopped. "How many was that, six, I think? Well, then, nine more."

--**End Flashback**--

Cali grinned, feeling like a girl who'd just fallen hopelessly in love. In the back of her mind, the hate of Gryffindors, who'd severed that love, bubbled up again.

"I _hate_ Gryffindors," she announced blandly.

"What?" Blaise was thrown. "That was rather random."

"Nah," Cali said, putting on her robes. "It's just that, well, I still love Draco," she smiled. "More that you'd know, and those stupid idiots want us apart."

"So don't listen to them!" Pansy said, as if stating the obvious.

"I know," she said. "But believe me, it's pressure like no other."

The other three shrugged, knowing they could not fully understand, and felt distinct sadness for their friend of mixed feelings.

The Slytherin fifth year girls strode down to the Great Hall together, chattering, though Cali was out of the conversation, as she was looking closely over the potion Draco had given her.

'Does he really want this? I guess... if I do, he'd do it.' In the emotion, a tear of unsatisfied love built up. She blinked it away but smiled sadly. 'He wouldn't have found the potion if he wasn't sure...'

She sat realised that in following her roommates, she was now standing next to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, where a magnificent breakfast of cinnamon pancakes and lightly salted eggs lay.

Her head throbbed again as someone crashed into her. She didn't even bother turning around to tell him or her off, she just sat down next to Blaise and a black and blonde blob.

Huh?

"Oh, hey, Draco," she said, minding her headache thus trying not to laugh too hard at his state.

He surprised her by snapping up and smirking widely. "Have a nice night?"

She stared. How he could have such a high tolerance for alcohol was beyond her, obviously. She shook her head lightly, processing his question. "Not after I went back down to the dorms," she answered. "And this morning was horrid."

"Hangover, eh?"

"Huge one." She fell into Draco's earlier position, back bent and head rested on arms.

Draco pulled out a bottle about half full with a glimmering liquid inside. "Drink this, it'll clear up your mind."

"You sure this isn't another form of alcohol?" she asked warily though she could tell he was trying to help.

"Think what you want." Draco uncapped the bottle and took a swig. "Though I do look a lot better than you, don't I?" He grinned.

Cali smirked and grabbed the bottle from him. She drank the rest of it and immediately felt the potion running over her aching mind and cool off the pain. "Wow. Thanks, Draco."

He nodded and pulled over a plate of food he'd pushed aside when he saw Cali coming in. Cali smiled, a bit weakly, to see Draco enjoying the pancakes so she stared at the food.

--**Cali's POV**--

Huhh... pancakes. Pancakes? Oh, right, I like those... and syrup, syrup is good.

Ohh, damn this stupid hangover. I shall never drink that much again. How much _did_ I have? Ehh...

Well, may as well try to satisfy my stomach, if not my head's well being. Oh, yes, pancakes. And for some syrup... maybe a bit more than a little... huh...

Oh, dude... what the hell is he doing? Is that eating? I can't stop watching him _eat_. I mean, with all that syrup – almost as much as how much is on mine – and him licking at it like that... oh, now he bites it... oh, gods, that's nice...

"Draco." I hit him, more weakly than satisfactory. "Stop. Doing that."

He just smirks, obviously not missing the lack of energy. "Thought I'd wake you up now that your hangover's gone."

"Well it worked..." I muttered. "Now will you eat normally... so I can concentrate on _my_ eating?" Gee, that sounded great. Can I go back to sleep now?

--**Draco's POV**--

I marvel again at what a low tolerance she has for alcohol... sad, really. Of course, coming from me, it'd only seem so. Ha.

It's a good thing I did decide to make the clearing potion. Good thing they didn't catch me stealing ingredients... Now that I think of it, if I had been caught somehow, it'd probably be Snape and he wouldn't do anything. Works well to my advantage.

You know, Cali needs to wake up. Even if her hangover is gone... Oh, and those stupid fumes in the Divination "room"... more of a cramped hellhole, if you ask me. And we have that exam today... I have an idea...

--**3rd Person**--

As predicted, Professor Trelawney's classroom fumes did make Cali's head spin a little more than usual. An exam to be taken that day did not go along well with her condition at all.

"Do well on the exam?"

Cali turned from gathering her books. "_Reducto_," she muttered then floated the books above her head. On a second thought, she figured it was too much a risk of power failure thus causing her books to hit her on the head. She floated them in front of her then noticed that Draco had spoken.

Oddly enough, heartbeats began reverberating in the hollow of her rib cage. She had in fact spent the more fun part of the early morning with him and he had cured the more horrid part of her morning and yet... she was nervous. He was so nice to her and she could not get over petty nerves. Of maybe it was because her conscience was too strong.

She took a breath, trying to push away her thoughts though she knew they would catch up with ease. "The exam was okay. Thank you so much for the potion," she said as sincerely as possible. "Do you have anymore though?"

Draco shook his head. "No, that was all the ingredients I could steal from Snape yesterday... er, earlier this morning."

"Oh." She looked up at him and on a sudden impulse, kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she restated, feeling a warming tingle when he returned a half-smile. "So... what're you going to do now?"

He shrugged. "Don't know, really. You?"

"I was actually planning on going to the library... I found some books that could be useful." She pointed over their heads at the now pocketsize books. "Would you like to... come with me?"

"I don't know if I should," he said, after a moment's consideration. "No doubt the Granger bitch will be there, possibly with her cronies. The moronically extensive studying skills of Gryffindorks..."

Cali laughed, her nerves dissipating. "That's true... damn, I don't want to deal with Hermione right now... who would...? And I have a bad temper. Don't think anyone wants to see that." She sighed.

"Right." He smirked. "Then meet you in the common room before lunch?"

"Definitely." She nodded.

As they parted ways at the main staircases, Draco had to slight the urge to reach out, grab her, and kiss her hard. They weren't dating anymore, after all. That, and though he did not know, her reaction would most likely dishearten him.

Down in the Slytherin common room, Draco was sprawled gracefully – 'tis possible – over a chair with three subjects' homework laid out on the table. Opposite the table were Blaise and Pansy, who had both decided they wanted to do homework with him, but were currently poring over a Teen Witch Weekly magazine.

He had gone through the Potions homework quickly and was nearly halfway through the Charms assignment. "This must be a familiar scene for the Mudblood," he thought, mentally rolling his eyes. He began rolling up the mounds of parchment. "The hag McGonagall's homework can wait," he said to himself.

He put all his things back into the dorms, deciding to take a walk – anything to get away from Blaise and Pansy arguing over which one of them would look better in a dress they'd spotted.

**Library**

Cali picked her books out of the air. "_Engorgio_." She whispered this quietly, seeing as Madame Pince looked more uptight than usual. To little surprise, she saw Ron and Harry get up from a table behind the first rows of shelves.

"'Mione, don't you think we've studied enough?" she heard Harry ask.

"I reckon you've studied enough for all three of us to get perfect marks, even in different subjects," Ron chimed in, in almost a whine. "Besides, Divination is boring. You can study for Ancient Runes all you want, but Div is too dull."

Cali could imagine Hermione rolling her eyes with her next words: "I'm very glad I dropped the class but that doesn't mean you can slack off," she said. "Go ahead if you want; I'm staying a bit longer."

Harry and Ron emerged, looking relieved, but froze, seeing Cali.

"Hi," Ron said, his voice shooting up several octaves.

"Hullo," Harry said, maintaining more control than his friend.

"Hi," Cali said then pushed past them, disgusted.

Hermione watched as her two best friend turned, halted, and muttered choked greetings. A familiar voice said "hi" back then Harry and Ron parted, revealing California Drache. Hermione blinked. Then her eyes narrowed, as did Cali's.

"What's a Slytherin doing in the library?" she asked, almost laughing, with a calculating gaze.

"Everything you should be concerned with," Cali answered at nearly a hiss. She teleported her books to a table a good ways away from the offender... if you really wished to use names – Hermione.

"Why exactly would I be concerned with the doings of the likes of you?"

"By asking what you have and by doing what you've done, it's obvious you are."

Hermione considered this but said nothing to counter it. "Then why aren't you so stingy to say... ohh, Harry and Ron?" she asked expectantly.

"Simply because," Cali spat, "it's _you_ I hate." She allowed time for this to process. "They're just too weak to stand against you," she finished, trying to sound as menacing as possible. To her benefit, Hermione did look pretty shaken, though she quickly covered that up. Satisfied with that bit, Cali teleported over to where her books where, pointedly flipping her long blonde mane over her shoulder.

Hermione watched as Cali's rage-filled death glare disappeared to several tables over. She watched as the girl roughly pulled out a chair, and with exaggerated poise – even for Cali herself – sat down. She irritably flicked her shockingly bright coloured hair over her shoulder, which was bare – she had removed her school robes to reveal a black tank, lined with what looked like real metal trimming from where Hermione sat. When Cali moved slightly to turn a page, light glinted off the silver material and Hermione raised an eyebrow; it was indeed metal.

With much fidgeting, Hermione noted once more how much more superior Cali's hair was as compared to her own. It wasn't even that blonde hair was supposedly superior to brunette, it was the quality of her hair. It was completely straight, with not one tainting wave. It spilled down her back, giving harsh contrast with the colour of her top. 'Malfoy has competition,' Hermione thought bemusedly. She idly fingered at her own wavy brown locks. She's never cared much for her hair, but it was now obvious that could not compare to Cali's. Several tables over, Cali burst out in laughter, earning a disapproving glare from Madame Pince. Cali paid little attention to this, just quickly stifled her laughter and furiously flipped pages, searching for something Hermione knew not.

Shrugging, she averted her eyes to her textbook. 'These tools were used primarily for construction of the first recordings of...' Hermione trailed off in her own thoughts as Cali failed to fully suppress her laughter. 'What could be so interesting?' Hermione wondered off handedly. '-the first recordings of... oh, forget it. Studying with that Slytherin moron giggling her useless head off will probably do for the worse,' she concluded, leaving the library.

Cali watched as the frizzy haired girl stalked off. Unknown to the other, she had turned her psychic connection to being between them. She had heard Hermione's every thought since sitting down.

'Never thought she'd be thinking about hair,' she thought to herself, then subconsciously flickered the connection back to Draco.

'—fucking bored. Blaise and Pansy are being complete prats and arguing about a dress that wouldn't look good on either of them. Parkinson couldn't even fill up the front, I'm sure. And I don't want to put up with Granger and her gang so I get to sit out here and be so delightfully bored!'

Cali laughed. 'Hi, Draco,' she intervened with his thoughts. 'Do you regularly talk to yourself?'

There was a pause on the other end. 'Hallo,' was the reply. 'I've been bored. And I would have been talking to you if you were not... who were you talking to, then?'

'No one. I was purposely eavesdropping on Hermoine's thoughts. Don't ask. It was quite interesting, though... So what're you doing?'

'Being hopelessly bored.'

'Sounds like fun. Want me to read some of this to you?'

Draco shrugged. 'Couldn't do much harm, I suppose.'

'Hmm... The four Houses of Hogwarts were named after the founders of the school. They were: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena—'

'I know _that_, I'm not so much a useless prat as you think,' Draco said defensively. 'That would be Crabbe and Goyle.'

'—Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin... Are you comparing _me_ to Crabbe and Goyle, 'cause I've never read about Hogwarts' history!' Cali said, laughing inwardly.

'Cali, are you blowing bubbles in the library?' he asked suddenly.

She paused, too confused to comment smartly. 'No... why would I be?' she asked, referring to the ridiculous mental image of her holding a can of bubble solution Muggle children had and blowing bubbles in Madame Pince's face.

'Sounded like it.'

'Draco, I was laughing.'

'You were? I really wanted to know what would happen if you did go and blow bubbles in Madame Pince's face.'

Cali wore an amused smile as she turned the page. 'So anyway, the founders got together to make a school where everyone with the ability could come and learn magic. They decided that because they were not immortal, they needed another method of placing students in their Houses. So they placed special charms and spells on an ordinary wizard's hat, thus creation of the Sorting Hat...'

'Knew that, too.' Draco faked a yawn. It sounded like a muffled foghorn through the connection.

Cali stifled another round of "blowing bubbles." 'Are you going to take this seriously or not?' she asked.

'Of course,' he said. 'Since you apparently are.'

Cali shook her head. This wasn't getting anywhere. 'This isn't getting anywhere,' she told him. 'I'm going back to the common room till lunch. Where're you?'

'By the lake. Getting up. Hold on, I have to get this beetle off. Okay. Marching off to the school.'

'Yeah, okay, I don't need a play-by-play of your whereabouts,' she said teasingly.

"But don't you want one," he muttered as he neared the doors. He stared at them for a moment. He had never really looked at them, though he had gone on walks several times and thus had passed through them many, many times. They were very large, about twice as tall as he himself was. The designs weren't too elaborate, there were doors at Malfoy Mansion more decorative than here. Shrugging off the odd thoughts, he pushed through the doors and headed for the Slytherin dungeons.

Thoughts of all kinds rushed through his mind, but they all centered around one person. What she felt, what she thought, what she thought about him... what she felt about him... 'I know she said she'd always... love me,' he thought, pausing. It sounded awfully awkward to his mind saying that. 'But with the past occurrences... does she still? We're friends, and though it _is_ a good thing, it's less than what I want.' He put his thoughts on pause and regained control of his thoughts. 'Maybe it's not such a bad thing just to let them go...' he thought. It sure was coming up with things he would never admit to himself under a controlled circumstance. He swiftly streaked thought the hallways, down stairs, around corners as only one thought floated up to the surface of his mind. 'I've got to find out what's between me and Cali.'

"Where's Cali?" demanded Draco, stomping into the Common Room.

Pansy looked up from a corner and said smugly, "She was here - about five minutes ago. You're late. Shows how much you like her, hm?"

Draco glared at her with such intensity it looked as if it was going to slice her ponytail off from her head. "Where is she?" he hissed.

"In the shower," Pansy said airily, purposely ignoring his anger. Not a good idea. "So you'll have to be without her for a moment. You know what, Draco?"

"What is it?" he spat.

"That leaves us alone..." Pansy grinned.

"And you know what?"

"No, what?"

"I do think I will go join Cali in the shower," said a very disgusted Draco.

Draco stood up, heading in the direction of the shower, leaving a sputtering and indignant Pansy. What she didn't see in her shock and anger was that he turned sharply down the stairs to his dorm instead of entering the shower room, which was locked anyways.

"I think I'd get in the shower with Ginny Weasley before purposely being stuck here with you," he muttered, annoyed.

-----

Amazing(-ly enough), I've finished a chapter. It's all inspiration due to OoTP and a slash fic I just finished. So hooray for them.

PLEASE review... reviewing, for me, is the best inspiration, even better than reading other stories. Yes. D

Angelee


	14. Le Retour!

To any eyes that may come across this story which has been cruelly abandoned for four years:

I have decided to at least try and continue (and hopefully finish) this story!

I've had so many doubts about whether or not to continue/finish this fic... like if my style would be consistent with 4 years ago, if the characters would seem the same... I went back and edited some parts of the older chapters, or a lot, tweaking a few words... or cuz some of the descriptions were just so horribly OOC to me. And I _almost _changed the Michelle Branch songs to songs that I'm more currently in love with… but I decided to leave them as a memory and salute to the past. In fact, the title change I decided that I wanted turned out to be in reference to a Michelle Branch song. So all the changes are small descriptions or a specific example, when I think Draco is being so OOC that I cringe about ever writing it.

I guess I'm writing this because I want to have the accomplishment of having written a relatively long HP fic. I'm going to college this fall, so I guess I'm in the mood for trying not to leave things unfinished... and combined with the 7th book having come out this summer (AHHH) and after rereading Cassandra Claire's Draco trilogy, I got the feverish inspiration to finish this story! After reading it, I fell in love with my AU again... I also feel bad because I didn't finish this story four years ago when people were reading it... and everyone hates reading a story, esp. a long one, and then the author never finishes it. So four years later... I'm going to try my hardest to finish it.

I've written out a loose plot for the rest so I hope to have the next chapter out soon.

Angelee


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